Palestinian authorities stated that Israeli settlers stormed two Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank late on Saturday, killing one man and torching a car.
According to the Palestinian ambulance service, a 38-year-old man was shot in the chest and killed in the northern West Bank town of Qarawat Bani Hassan after people clashed with settles and Israel forces.
The Israeli military stated that soldiers came to the site and used riot dispersal methods as well as live fire to break up the altercation between civilians and settlers.
“Palestinians shot fireworks in response and an Israeli and four Palestinians were injured. The incident was being examined and had been handed over to police”, the Israeli military continued.
In another instance, Wajih Al-Qat, head of the Madama village council near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, said a group of approximately 15 Israelis set fire to a car and shattered the windows of a house with stones.
The Israeli military made no quick remark on the incident.
The attacks are the latest in a string of similar instances involving settlers that have drawn condemnation from foreign leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, whose administration is planning to bar extreme settlers from entering the country.
The West Bank, which the Palestinians desire as part of a future independent state, has seen an increase in violence in recent months as Jewish settlements have expanded and U.S.-backed peacemaking attempts have stalled for nearly a decade.
This year’s bloodshed reached a more-than-15-year high after Israel invaded the autonomous enclave of Gaza in response to a deadly bombing in southern Israel by Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7.
Yesh Din, a human rights group that tracks settler violence, reported at least 225 incidences of Israeli violence in 93 Palestinian communities since the war began.
Before Saturday’s incident, it was reported that at least nine Palestinians had been killed in such attacks.
In a second incident in Nablus, Palestinian authorities stated a 14-year-old boy died of his wounds after being shot during an incident in which the Israeli military said he brandished a knife at checkpoint personnel.
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