The West Bank groans under Israeli attacks… a teenager killed by a settler’s gunfire

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A Palestinian teenager was shot dead by an Israeli settler in Bethlehem, in the West Bank, amid an unprecedented surge in such attacks, according to the United Nations.

Mohammad Al-Badan, mayor of Tuqou’ in the occupied West Bank, said that a 16-year-old boy was killed by gunfire from an Israeli settler in the town east of Bethlehem.

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Violence in the West Bank has intensified since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip in October 2023, which lasted two years. Attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians have escalated sharply, with the United Nations reporting the highest number of such incidents ever recorded in October.

An Israeli security source said that an Israeli civilian opened fire on masked individuals who were throwing stones and paint bottles at Israeli civilian vehicles traveling on a main road in the area. The source added that Israeli police took the Israeli civilian in for further questioning.

In a phone call with Reuters, Al-Badan said: “Today, after the funeral of the teenager Ammar Sabah, aged 16, who was killed yesterday by the Israeli army in the center of the town, several youths were standing near the main road when a settler fired at the teenager Mohib Jibril, aged 16, hitting him in the head.”

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He added: “He was taken to a medical center in the town, where his death was declared, after which his funeral and burial took place.”

A video circulating on social media, which Reuters could not independently verify, shows a group of youths running away from a street, before one of them collapses to the ground moments later.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that Israeli forces killed Ammar Sabah the previous day during an army incursion into the town. The Israeli army stated that the incident was under investigation and that soldiers had come under stone-throwing, prompting them to use crowd-dispersal measures before opening fire.

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Some 2.7 million Palestinians live in the West Bank under limited self-rule amid Israeli military occupation, while hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers reside there.

Most of the international community considers the settlements, built on land occupied by Israel during the 1967 war, to be illegal. Numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions have called on Israel to halt all settlement activity.

Jennifer Locketta, deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council today that “the United States remains focused on ensuring Israel’s security and the stability of Gaza and the West Bank.”

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She added: “President Donald Trump has made it clear that the United States expects an end to the violence in the West Bank and will not allow the annexation of any part of it.”

In a separate development, the Israeli army announced today its intention to demolish several buildings in the long-established Nour Shams refugee camp, north of the West Bank city of Tulkarem.

The army said the camps in the area “constitute hubs of terrorist activity.” Palestinian media reported that the mayor of Tulkarem condemned the move, describing it as an outright crime.

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According to residents of the Nour Shams camp who spoke to Reuters earlier this year, the Israeli army demolished large sections of the camp last March to allow the passage of military vehicles, displacing thousands of residents.

The army has tightened movement restrictions and carried out widespread raids in several cities, citing the need to root out elements suspected of belonging to armed groups.

In November, Human Rights Watch accused Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with what it described as forced displacement in the West Bank. Israel denies these allegations.

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