Israeli settlers kill 19-year-old Palestinian American, officials and witnesses say | Palestine

Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank shot and killed a Palestinian American man during an attack on a village, the Palestinian Health Ministry and an eyewitness said.

Raed Abu Ali, a resident of Mukhmas, said that a group of settlers came to the village on Wednesday afternoon and attacked a farmer, leading to clashes after residents intervened.

Israeli forces later arrived and during the violence, armed settlers killed 19-year-old Nasrallah Abu Siyam and injured several others.

Abu Ali said the army used tear gas, stun grenades and live ammunition. The Israeli military acknowledged using what it called “riot dispersal methods” after receiving reports of Palestinians throwing stones, but denied its forces opened fire during the clashes.

“When the settlers saw the army, they became emboldened and started shooting with live bullets,” Abu Ali said. He added that they hit the injured with sticks after they fell to the ground.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed that Abu Siyam died of serious injuries near the village east of Ramallah on Wednesday afternoon.

The killing of Abu Siyam was the latest increase in the incident violence In the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces and settlers killed 240 Palestinians last year, according to the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs. Palestinians killed 17 Israelis, including six soldiers, during the same period.

The Palestinian Authority Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said Abu Siyam was the first Palestinian to be killed by settlers in 2026.

Mukhmas and the surrounding area, most of which are under Israeli civil and military administration, have become a hotspot for settler attacks, including arson and assaults, as well as the construction of outposts that Israeli law considers illegal.

The Israeli military said late Wednesday that unnamed suspects opened fire on Palestinians who were later evacuated for medical treatment. It was not stated whether anyone was arrested.

Abu Siyam’s mother told The Associated Press that he was an American citizen, making him the second Palestinian American to be killed by Israeli settlers in less than a year.

A US embassy spokesman said they “condemned this violence”.

Palestinians and rights groups say authorities routinely fail to prosecute settlers or hold them accountable for violence.

The U.N. human rights office on Thursday accused Israel of war crimes and said practices that displaced Palestinians and changed the demographics of the occupied West Bank “raise concerns about ethnic cleansing.”

Citing findings collected between November 2024 and October 2025, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said Israel was engaged in a “concerted and escalating effort to consolidate annexation” while maintaining a system that would “perpetuate the oppression and domination of Palestinians.”

Residents of Palestinian villages and shepherd communities increasingly displaced As Israeli settlements and outposts expand. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Israeli rights group B’Tselem says about 45 Palestinian communities have been completely evacuated due to Israeli demolition orders and settler attacks.

In addition, the office is the Israeli army’s Operations in the northern West Bank “Means and methods designed for war,” including deadly air strikes and the forcible transfer of civilians from their homes. He also said Israel “banned” residents from returning To their homes in refugee camps in the northern West Bank. The operation, which Israel said was against militants, displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians.

The report also accused Palestinian security forces of using unnecessary lethal force in the same areas, killing at least eight people, and noted that the Palestinian Authority used “intimidation, detention, and ill-treatment of journalists, human rights defenders, and others critical of its rule.”

Neither the Israeli foreign ministry nor the Palestinian Authority responded to requests for comment. Israel has repeatedly accused the UN human rights office of anti-Israeli bias.

Last year, the UN human rights watchdog warned of what it called “a genocide unfolding in Gaza” and that “living conditions are becoming increasingly incompatible”. [Palestinians’] Thursday’s report also warned that demographic changes in Gaza were raising concerns of ethnic cleansing.

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists said dozens of Palestinian journalists detained in Israel during the war in Gaza faced conditions including physical assault, forced stress positions, sensory deprivation, sexual violence and medical neglect.

CPJ documented the detention of at least 94 Palestinian journalists and one media worker from the West Bank, Gaza and Israel during the war. CPJ said 30 were still in custody.

The report found that half of the journalists had never been charged with a crime and were held under Israel’s administrative detention system, which allows suspects deemed to pose a security risk to be detained for six months and renewable indefinitely.

Israeli prison services did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report, but it was declined A similar report on the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in January It is subject to oversight and investigates complaints under “false claims” that it is operating legally.

According to the UN Development Programme, it will take at least seven years to clear the debris from the massive destruction in Gaza.

Former Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo, who recently returned from Gaza, said UNDP had removed only 0.5 percent of the rubble and that people in Gaza were experiencing “the worst living conditions I have ever seen.”

De Croo said 90% of Gaza’s 2.2 million people live in “very, very primitive tents” amid the rubble, posing health hazards and the danger of weapons explosions.

He said UNDP has been able to build 500 upgraded housing units and another 4,000 are ready, but estimates the actual need is between 200,000 and 300,000 units. The units are intended to be used temporarily during reconstruction efforts. He called on Israel to expand access to goods and materials needed for reconstruction and to engage the private sector in development.