Second Palestinian youth dies after shot in West Bank

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - A Palestinian youth shot by Israeli forces died from his wounds Sunday, Palestinian medics said, the second death from the same incident Saturday that may fuel tensions in the occupied West Bank.

Osaid al-Kaddous, 17, was fatally wounded in a confrontation between Israeli forces and Palestinian youths, who had been throwing stones, in the Palestinian village of Iraq Burin, near Nablus. Mohammed Ibrahim, 16, was killed there Saturday.

Due to be buried later Sunday, they were the first Palestinians to die in recent weeks of protests in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Kaddous had been struck in the head by what a Palestinian medic who treated him said was a live bullet.

The Israeli army has denied live ammunition was used.

In a statement, the army said two Palestinians were hit by Israeli forces during what it described as an "illegal riot" in the village. Rubber bullets were used, it said.

Ghassan Khatib, who speaks for the Palestinian government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, said: "We look at this as part of the Israeli escalation. It could have been treated in a completely different way.

"But the Israelis have been escalating and this is something the prime minister has been warning against."

The villagers of Iraq Burin have been staging weekly protests over Israeli-imposed restrictions on access to farmland that lies near the Jewish settlement of Har Brakha.

Near Bethelehem Sunday, about 100 Palestinian youths clashed with Israeli security forces, the Israeli army said. The security forces responded with riot dispersal means, it said.

(Writing by Tom Perry, editing by Alastair Macdonald and Matthew Jones)