Three Palestinians were killed — two of them shot in the head — when Israeli settlers raided their village in the northern West Bank on Sunday, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.
The Israeli military said that the Israeli police had opened a criminal investigation into the incident in Khirbet Abu Falah, a village about two miles south of the Israeli settlement of Shiloh.
In all, six Palestinian civilians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran just over a week ago, in what appears to be an intensification of settler violence while worldwide attention is focused on the fighting enveloping much of the Middle East.
On Monday, two Palestinian brothers were shot dead by Israeli fire in the village of Qaryut during a confrontation with settlers over land, according to local residents and the Palestinian Ministry of Health, an agency of the Palestinian Authority, based in Ramallah, that administers much of the West Bank.
On Saturday in Wadi al-Rakhim, near Susya, in the southern West Bank, one Palestinian man was killed and his brother was critically injured, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.
The violence occurred after settlers brought sheep and cattle to graze on what the Palestinians say is their land and then tried to force the animals into the Palestinians’ houses, two witnesses said. When the villagers tried to drive the animals away, several settlers beat them with clubs, and one of them opened fire, according to one of the witnesses, Abed Shanaran.
Amir Shanaran, 28, was fatally shot in the neck. His brother Khaled Shanaran, 34, was shot in the abdomen but survived.
Several other Palestinians were also injured. Abed Shanaran said that his wife was run over, and her leg was broken, by another settler driving an all-terrain vehicle.
Israeli soldiers, police and border police responded to the scene. The military said that its initial review of the incident showed a reserve Israeli soldier had arrived earlier, after receiving a report of an attack, and had opened fire; it did not identify him as a settler.
It said that military police were investigating and would submit their findings to the military advocate general.
The violence on Sunday in Khirbet Abu Falah began at about 2 a.m., when at least 20 masked settlers wielding clubs raided the village, setting olive trees on fire and trying to burn at least one agricultural structure as well, according to witnesses who spoke to The New York Times.
When residents came out to drive the settlers away, shining lights on them and throwing rocks, the witnesses said, dozens more settlers showed up, some of them armed.
Thaer Farouq Hamayel, 24, and Farea Jawdat Hamayel, 57, were both fatally shot in the head, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the witnesses and a local doctor who tried to save them.
When Israeli soldiers arrived, they fired tear gas canisters to disperse people involved, officials said. Muhammad Hassan Murra, 55, died after going into cardiac arrest while inhaling tear gas, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, who heads Israel’s Central Command, which is responsible for the West Bank, said Sunday’s incident was “unacceptable.”
“There will be zero tolerance for civilians who take the law into their own hands,” he said in a statement. “These actions are dangerous, they do not represent the Jewish people or the State of Israel,” and they divert the military from its mission while “undermining security and stability in the area,” he said.
“Especially at a time when the I.D.F. is striking our bitter enemies, Iran and Hezbollah, with a firm hand,” General Bluth added, referring to the Israel Defense Forces, “we cannot allow reckless internal violence to undermine the rule of law and the security of the region.”
David M. Halbfinger is The Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief, leading coverage of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. He also held that post from 2017 to 2021. He was the politics editor from 2021 to 2025.
The post Israeli Settlers Kill 3 Palestinians in a Weekend of West Bank Violence appeared first on New York Times.
