Israeli Defense Forces on Tuesday shot from behind and killed 16-year-old Samir Awad, a Palestinian boy in the West Bank, as he was retreating*. The IDF claims Awad tried to breach the separation barrier Israel has built to help fortify their system of apartheid and land theft.

However, Ayeed Mora, a member of the Budrus Popular Committee, claims “that near the separation barrier that Israel built, IDF soldiers ambushed the youths and opened fire,” Haaretz reports. “There was no just cause to open fire, he asserts.”

“In recent days we feel an escalation by the army, which shoots at everything that approaches the fence, even if they are children,” Mora told Haaretz. “Time and time again we hear of the claim that the young Palestinians provoked or hurled stones, but nothing justifies the shooting of live rounds at children.” Mora added that the IDF “shouldn’t speak of provocations, the fact they built the fence on our lands is provocation.”

This is the fourth Palestinian killed by the IDF in a week. Israeli soldiers also shot a Gaza farmer, 21-year-old Mustafa Abu Jarad, in the head on Monday. This time, the IDF had no excuse and has refused to comment.

The last time Israel tried to quietly murder unarmed Gazans, it used Palestinian retaliation as an excuse to bomb the entire strip.

*Update: The Guardian reports that Awad was shot by Israeli forces in the back, as he was running away.