Israeli soldiers shoot handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian teenager

Osama Hajahjeh, 16, said on Monday he was walking home Thursday last week from a funeral in the occupied West Bank village of Tekoa when he was confronted by Israeli soldiers.

The funeral was for a school teacher in his village of Tekoa, who had been hit by a car driven by an Israeli while walking at a busy intersection.

He says the soldiers bound him, covered his eyes with a cloth blindfold and shouted at him in Hebrew and Arabic. He was "confused" and started walking away when he was shot in both legs.

A photo captured by a local photographer appears to show soldiers pursuing a fleeing Hajahjeh with his eyes covered and hands tied behind his back.

The Israeli military says it arrested an instigator of a violent protest and fired at his lower abdomen when he tried to flee. It says it is investigating.

"Only a sick person would shoot a blindfolded boy," said Hajaheh's father, Ali.

Israeli military accounts and information from Palestinians often differs. Last week, B'Tselem revealed Israeli soldiers covered up the murder of a Palestinian man who was shot dead by settlers.

In the occupied West Bank last year, Israeli forces wounded over 5,000 Palestinians and fatally shot dozens, according to Human Rights Watch.

B'Tselem says four Palestinians in their late teens or early twenties have been killed in the West Bank since early March.