Nablus, Sept 4 (ZEENEWS.COM) Masked militants trying to keep students away from school during a politically charged Palestinian teachers' strike on Sunday shot and wounded a 12-year-old boy.

Palestinian teachers began striking Saturday, the start of the school year, to demand full back pay and regular salaries from the Hamas-led government, which has been financially crippled by six months of international sanctions.

Most schools throughout the West Bank remained closed, some by force, as the strike continued.

At least three masked militants stood outside a school in the northern West Bank city of Nablus and fired in the air to keep children away, witnesses said.

Stray fire hit a 12-year-old boy, Issam Ghannam, in the abdomen, witnesses said.

He was in stable condition after undergoing surgery, doctors said.

"He has passed the danger zone and is now resting in intensive care," said Dr. Khaled Qadiri, a doctor at Rafidya Hospital in Nablus.

The child's family, Fatah loyalists, refused to condemn the militants. "There were unknown men with weapons, preventing the students from going to school," said the boy's uncle, Ghannam Ibrahim Ghannam. "They fired, and as an unintentional result of the shooting he was hit."

The strike was widely viewed as a tactic by Fatah to pressure Hamas to join it in a national unity government. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hopes the alliance will force Hamas to recognize Israel, helping end the sanctions and enabling him to renew peace talks.

Israel, the United States and the European Union � all of which label Hamas as a terror group � have demanded the Islamic militant group renounce violence and accept Israel's right to exist before they will restore aid to the Palestinian government.