3 year old Palestinianwho was badly wounded by bullets Israelis soldiers last week in the occupied West Bank died today, Israeli and Palestinian sources say.

The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry announced the death of Mohammed al-Tamimi, 3, from the village of Nabi Saleh, north of Ramallah.

The child was wounded on Thursday night in a shootout between Israeli soldiers and “attackers” near the Jewish settlement of Neven Dzhuf (Chalamis), not far from his village. The army “deplores the harm caused to the civilian population and undertakes to do everything in its power to prevent such incidents,” the Israeli military said. According to this source, “the attackers opened fire in the direction of the Neven Dzhuf community” and the soldiers returned fire, injuring the child and his father.

The boy was flown by military helicopter to the Sheba hospital in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, where it is said that he died today “despite the best efforts of the medical staff.”

Mohammed’s father, Haytham al-Tamimi, 40, told AFP that he was with the child in the car when the shooting started. “We were visiting relatives. All of a sudden they opened fire on us,” said al-Tamimi, who has a shoulder injury.

^{Source: APE-MEB, AFP, dpa.}