- Written by Lawrence Peter & Lipika Pelham
- BBC news
One Palestinian man was killed and 25 others were reported injured in the occupied West Bank when dozens of Jewish settlers attacked a village during Israel's search for a missing teenager. ing.
Israeli forces intervened after dozens of settlers armed with guns and stones stormed al-Mughair.
It is not yet clear whether the man who died, Jehad Abu Alia, 26, was shot dead by armed settlers or Israeli soldiers.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said live ammunition hit at least eight people.
Missing Benjamin Ahimer, 14, has not been found. An extensive search is underway.
Local media said the circumstances of the boy's disappearance were still unclear and the military was unsure whether the incident was terrorism-related. Troops set up barricades in the area.
Israeli media reported that Benjamin Akimer left the “Gul Farm” at the Marakei Shalom settler outpost early Friday morning and has not been seen since.
Police said the man was grazing his sheep, but the sheep returned to the farm without him. His sister Hanna said he was familiar with the area, AFP reported.
Separately, Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians in the West Bank.
One person was identified by Hamas as a commander of a local group. The Israeli military announced that Mohamed Daraghmeh was killed in a gunfight with troops.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, with a deadly Hamas attack in Israel on October 7 that killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. .
In al-Mughair, a video posted to X by Israeli human rights group Yesh Din shows black smoke billowing from a burning car next to an olive grove as gunshots are heard. Photos on social media also show what appears to be a crowd of masked settlers.
The father of 26-year-old Jehad Abu Alia, who was shot dead, spoke from the Ramallah hospital where Jehad's body was taken. “His son went with others to protect our land and honor, and something like this happened,” said Afif Abu Alia.
The IDF said its troops, not settlers, opened fire on stone-throwing Palestinians as “violent unrest broke out in several locations in the area.”
The army reportedly managed to eliminate the settlers who had entered the village.
The Israel Defense Forces said: “At this time, the violent riot has dispersed and there are no Israeli civilians in the town.”
Palestinian Prime Minister Mustafa condemned the attack.
Foreign governments, including the United States, Israel's closest ally, have repeatedly expressed concern about a surge in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank since Israel launched a military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. .
Since Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, it has built around 160 settlements, home to around 700,000 Jews. The majority of the international community considers the settlements to be illegal under international law, but Israel and the United States dispute this.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health says at least 460 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since October 7.
Israeli sources say at least 13 Israelis were killed by Palestinians during the same period.
A surge in violence in the West Bank has prompted the United States, Britain and France to impose sanctions on some settlers for the first time.
But the casualties there dwarf the war in Gaza, with more than 33,600 Gazans, most of them civilians, killed during the Israeli operation, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
On October 7, armed groups also took over 250 people hostage. Israel has announced that at least 34 of the 130 hostages remaining in Gaza have died.
Israel has not commented, but it is widely believed that the attack targeted Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force.