An illegal Israeli settler has shot dead a 16-year-old Palestinian in Tuqu after the funeral of another teenager, the town's mayor said.
"Today, after the funeral of 16-year-old Ammar Sabah, who was killed yesterday by the Israeli army in the town centre, a number of youths were gathered by the main street when a settler shot 16-year-old Muheeb Jibril in the head," Tuqu Mayor Mohammed al-Badan said on Tuesday.
Israeli forces killed Sabah on Monday during a military raid on the town, the Palestinian health ministry said. The military said the incident was under review. It said rocks were thrown at soldiers who used riot dispersal means and later responded with fire.
Violence has escalated in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the war in Gaza in October 2023. Attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank have increased sharply, with the UN reporting the highest number of attacks on record in October.
The new fatality brought the number of Palestinians killed by illegal settlers this year to 15, and 37 since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza.
Growing violence
Israeli forces and illegal settlers have killed at least 1,097 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, injured nearly 11,000, and detained around 21,000 since October 2023, according to Palestinian figures.
The West Bank is home to 2.7 million Palestinians who have limited self-rule under Israeli military occupation. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have settled there.
Most world powers deem Israel's settlements, on land it occupied in a 1967 war, illegal, and numerous UN Security Council resolutions have called on Israel to halt all settlement activity.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
