Palestinian killed after alleged attempted attack in West Bank

A 28-year-old Palestinian was shot dead by an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank on Friday after an attempted knife attack on a resident inside the Jewish settlement of Teneh Omrim.

Alaa Qaysiyeh infiltrated the Jewish settlement of Teneh Omrim by crawling under the settlement’s main gate, video obtained by Reuters shows. Before being “neutralized”, as the Israeli Army refers, the Palestinian tried to stab a settler on the spot. In a statement, the Israeli forces say that the shots were fired by an armed civilian, and that no settler was injured.

Family members of the dead Palestinian told Reuters the young man worked intermittently, and no Palestinian armed group claimed Qaysiyeh as a member.

According to the ABC station, the settlement is located close to the city of Hebron, a critical region in the south of the occupied West Bank, and is a site of frequent friction between Palestinian residents and Jewish settlers. Reuters recalls that the incident comes at a time when the European Union condemns the violence inflicted by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Vehicles burned and five injured

Also on Friday, in the village of al-Mughayyir, also in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian residents and set fire to five vehicles, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. “We were moving bales of hay when settlers arrived with soldiers and started shooting at us,” Murad Abu Alia, a Palestinian worker who lives in the area, told Reuters. However, there was no reaction from the Israeli army.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said five people were wounded, including one with a critical gunshot wound to the head. The AFP agency reports that the European Union delegation to the Palestinian Authority denounced the “settler attacks”, and asked Israel to “stop all confiscations and demolitions in the occupied West Bank”.

The AFP reports that around 490,000 Israelis live in settlements considered illegal by international law, called settlements, in the territory of the occupied West Bank.

At least 113 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the start of the year, according to an Associated Press tally compiled from official sources.