**An Israeli human rights group has called for an investigation into the deaths of two Palestinians on Saturday, apparently by live bullets.**The Israeli army says rubber-coated bullets were used at the incident in the north West Bank, in which Mohammed and Osayed Qadus were fatally injured.
But the group, Btselem, said pictures and an x-ray showed wounds inconsistent with rubber-coated bullets.
The military says “violent and illegal riots” were taking place at the time.
The shooting took place while anti-Israeli protests were being held in the village of Iraq-Burin near the town of Nablus, in the north of the West Bank on Saturday.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the deaths, saying that Israel’s response to diplomacy was violence.
“The Israeli escalation and the killing of Palestinians on a daily basis is the actual response of the Israeli government to the Palestinians, the Arabs and to American peace efforts, and an answer to the Quartet’s statement,” he said in a statement.
The Israeli military says it is carrying out further investigations.
‘False reporting of facts’
During the incident 16-year-old Mohammad Qadus sustained chest injuries and arrived dead at hospital.
Photographs obtained by Btselem from the hospital show wounds in both his chest and back, which Btselem’s director, Sarit Michaeli, said were “completely inconsistent” with the use of rubber-coated bullets.
“It’s unheard of that a rubber-coated bullet will penetrate and then exit the body,” said Ms Michaeli.
The hospital also showed Btselem an x-ray, which it said showed the skull of Osayed Qadus, 19, who died from his injuries on Sunday morning.
“There is very clearly a bullet inside the skull,” said Ms Michaeli.
“The bullet is consistent with live ammunition. It is completely inconsistent with rubber-coated steel bullets of the two types used by the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] - there are cylindrical and circular ones, neither looks anything like what you can see in the X-ray.”
The organisation is calling for a military criminal investigation, not just into “who shot them and why”, but also into the “suspected reporting of false facts by the soldiers who participated in the events”, Ms Michaeli said.
Btselem also wants an investigation into an incident on Sunday, in which two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli security forces.