Israeli soldiers pictured near the separation wall in Qalqiliya. (MaanImages/file)

QALQILIYA (Ma’an) — Israeli forces shot and injured a young Palestinian man near the northern West Bank village of Azzun Itma on Monday, Israel’s army said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said that Israeli forces saw several Palestinians attempting to cross a fence in the northern West Bank, and, “once they identified the infiltrators, they operated in order to prevent them from crossing the fence by firing in their direction.”

Israeli news site Ynet said that the man was moderately wounded in the shooting.

Israeli forces have killed at least 18 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2013.

The Palestinian city of Qalqiliya is nearly completely surrounded by the Israeli separation wall, while checkpoints cut it off from most of the West Bank.

In 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled that the separation wall was illegal and “tantamount to annexation.”

The internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West Bank form a part have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.