Israelis wound 9 Palestinians at boy's funeral

Israeli troops wounded nine Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in a clash with stone-throwing protesters at the funeral of a 10-year-old boy killed on Tuesday (local time), Palestinian medics said.

They said the Israelis had shot the protesters with rubber bullets.

A 21-year-old Palestinian was hit in the head and doctors described him as "brain dead".

The governor of Ramallah, Said Abu Ali, said an autopsy on the boy, who was killed near the West Bank village of Nilin, showed he had been shot in the head by live fire.

"There was a big hole in his head and we couldn't save his life," 39-year-old medic Salah Khawaja said. He said the boy had been shot at close range.

Demonstrators gather almost daily at Nilin to protest against the construction of Israel's barrier in the West Bank.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenberg said an investigation into the boy's death was underway, but had reached no conclusions.

He said protesters had been throwing stones and Israeli border police had fired teargas and rubber bullets.

Israel says the barrier it is building, much of it on West Bank land, is needed to prevent suicide bombings.

Palestinians denounce the network of walls and fences as a land grab cutting deep into the territory they seek for an independent state.