Israeli Settlers Kill Palestinian Youth in West Bank Rampage

A young Palestinian man was martyred and seven others injured Saturday evening in the town of Aqraba, south of Nablus, during an armed settler attack supported by Israeli forces.

According to the official WAFA news agency, 24-year-old Mueen Subhi Asfar was shot in the chest by settler gunfire and died on the scene.

Seven other civilians were wounded by live rounds, mostly in their lower limbs, and were transferred to hospitals for treatment.

Salah Jaber, mayor of Aqraba, stated that armed settlers descended from a newly built illegal outpost constructed on privately owned Palestinian land and began attacking residents.

He added that locals, many of them unarmed, tried to defend their town, but were met with a brutal response when Israeli occupation forces arrived and opened fire on the Palestinians instead of stopping the settlers.

The crime occurred just two days after another Palestinian, 40-year-old Khamis Ayyad, was killed from smoke inhalation after Israeli settlers set homes and vehicles ablaze in the town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah.

According to local residents, Ayyad had been helping extinguish the fires when he succumbed to the smoke.

WAFA reported that settlers also attacked the nearby villages of Khirbet Abu Falah and Rammun, setting fire to more civilian property in a continued pattern of destruction.

In another act of sabotage on Saturday, settlers uprooted 15 olive trees in the village of Farkha, near Nablus.

Mustafa Hammad, head of the Farkha Village Council, said that dozens of colonists infiltrated the al-Manqa’a area and destroyed the decades-old trees.

Meanwhile, settlers also established a new outpost near Kisan village in Bethlehem province, in another attempt to solidify the occupation of Palestinian land.

These attacks are taking place as Israel pursues a genocidal war on Gaza and simultaneously intensifies its land grab across the West Bank, further entrenching its apartheid system.

The occupied West Bank, under Israeli military control since 1967, has seen a sharp escalation in settler violence, regime-backed raids, and forced expulsions.

Israeli forces have demolished entire Palestinian neighborhoods and displaced more than 40,000 people in the past months, primarily in the northern West Bank.

Palestinian sources say around 770,000 settlers are now living illegally across 180 settlements and 256 outposts, many of which are used as bases for attacks on Palestinian communities.

In just the first half of 2025, settlers committed 414 attacks—a 30% rise from 2024—while since October 2023, at least 1,009 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers and settlers.

These actions are part of a broader strategy to erase Palestinian presence from their homeland under the cover of occupation and war.