Palestinian youth killed, seven other injured by Israeli settler attack in West Bank
At least one young Palestinian man has been killed and seven others injured in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli soldiers have been carrying out deadly raids for months and settlers have been violently rampaging against civilians.
The official Palestinian WAFA news agency, citing local authorities, reported that 24-year-old Mueen Subhi Asfar was fatally shot in the chest during an armed assault by Israeli settlers on the town of Aqraba on Saturday evening.
Seven other locals were wounded by live ammunition, mostly in the lower limbs, and were consequently transferred to the hospital for treatment.
Salah Jaber, mayor of Aqraba, stated that armed settlers carried out the assault from a newly established outpost on privately owned Palestinian land south of the town.
Jaber noted that unarmed residents attempted to fend off the settlers before Israeli occupation forces arrived, backing the attackers and opening live fire on civilians.
The development came only two days after a Palestinian man was killed after Israeli settlers set fire to vehicles and homes in a town in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Thursday that Khamis Ayyad, 40, died due to smoke inhalation after settlers attacked Silwad, northeast of Ramallah, around dawn.
Ayyad and others had been trying to extinguish the fires, according to local residents.
WAFA reported that the settlers also attacked the nearby villages of Khirbet Abu Falah and Rammun, setting fire to more vehicles.
Israeli settlers uproot 15 olive trees
Also on Saturday, Israeli settlers uprooted several olive trees in the village of Farkha, located south of the West Bank city of Nablus.
According to Mustafa Hammad, head of the Farkha Village Council, dozens of colonists sneaked their way into the al-Manqa’a area and cut down 15 old trees.
In a related development, Israeli settlers established a new outpost on Saturday near the village of Kisan in the southern West Bank province of Bethlehem.
Under the shadow of the genocidal war in Gaza, Israel has accelerated its annexation drive in the West Bank. The occupied West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967.
The Israeli military has intensified daily raids and mass arrests, notably in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, where Israeli bulldozers have razed entire residential areas, expelling at least 40,000 people.
Approximately 770,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, across 180 settlements and 256 outposts – including 138 classified as agricultural or pastoral, according to Palestinian reports.
Israeli data show illegal settlers staged 414 attacks against the Palestinians in the West Bank in the first half of 2025, up 30% from 2024. At least 1,009 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers since October 2023.
