UN officials said they are "very concerned" by the shooting of a young Palestinian boy in the head by the Israeli army.
After being shot on July 12, 9-year-old Abdul Rahman Shteiwi remains in critical condition, said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a written statement on Tuesday.
The statement said the shooting appears to be an "excessive use of force" by Israel.
"Abdul Rahman was not taking an active part in the protest. He was reportedly over 100 metres away from the clashes, and manifestly did not present an imminent physical threat to the ISF [Israeli army]," the statement stressed.
The statement said doctors have identified dozens of fragments in the child's head resulting in serious brain damage, from which he is unlikely to recover, even if he survives.
It said the incident occurred during a weekly protest in the village of Kafr Qaddum, near Nablus in the West Bank, where Israeli forces reportedly resorted to using live ammunition, without apparent reason to justify the move to use of lethal force.
"The shooting of Abdul Rahman is one of the latest in a long list of incidents in the occupied Palestinian Territory in which children and juveniles have been injured or killed in circumstances that strongly suggest excessive force was used by the ISF," the statement stressed.
The statement further urged Israeli authorities to "conduct a thorough, effective, impartial and independent investigation into the incident, and to make sure that those responsible for any wrongdoing are held accountable."
The 1967 Arab-Israeli War, also known as the Six-Day War, resulted in Israel's occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and Syria's Golan Heights, triggering the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Syrians.
Under international law, the territories captured by Israel in the war are regarded as occupied territory.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has proven one of the most intractable in modern history, causing massive human suffering and economic deprivation.
