Israeli Settlers Kill Three Palestinians in Occupied West Bank

Israeli settlers carried out a violent overnight attack in the village of Khirbet Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, killing two Palestinian men who were shot in the head and causing a third to die later from the fumes of a tear gas canister fired by soldiers who accompanied the settlers, according to local and regional reporting and Palestinian health officials.

“It said an investigation was under way”

Al Jazeera

The victims were identified as Fare Jawdat Hamayel, 57, and Thaer Farouq Hamayel, 24, and relatives and mourners described the scene of funerals and grief in the community.

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Witnesses said settlers escalated from pistols to automatic weapons during the assault, and Palestinian authorities reported multiple wounded alongside the dead.

The settler killings form part of a sharp uptick in deadly violence across the occupied West Bank since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, with Palestinian health authorities reporting that Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in that period while Israeli officials report at least 45 Israelis killed.

Observers describe the Abu Falah attack as one among at least three settler killings across the West Bank in recent days, underscoring a wider pattern of violence accompanying the Gaza genocide.

Dawn

Palestinian political leaders and the Israeli military issued sharply contrasting statements: Palestinian Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh condemned the “brutal attack on innocent citizens,”

“It said an investigation was under way”

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while the Israeli military said forces were dispatched to the area after reports of Palestinians being attacked by Israeli civilians and that an investigation was under way.

The Israeli military’s initial account also acknowledged reports that two Palestinians were killed by gunfire and another died from suffocation.

Local residents and officials described a broader pattern of settler incursions and lethal attacks in nearby villages over the same days, including reports that settlers entered homes in the Tuwani area and that a man wounded in an assault in Wadi al-Rakhim later died.

Local councils and the Ramallah-based health ministry linked several of these killings to settler violence, with community leaders saying families were attacked and homes breached during the incidents.

Dawn

Authorities say investigations are under way and Israeli forces were dispatched to confront the violence, but the killings deepen fears among West Bank Palestinians of unchecked settler violence amid the larger Gaza genocide and escalating military operations.

“It said an investigation was under way”

Al Jazeera

Families mourn in public funerals and leaders on both sides offer competing narratives — Palestinians demand accountability while Israeli military officials promise action against civilians who take the law into their own hands.

Al Jazeera