Israeli settlers kill 19-year-old Palestinian American, officials and witnesses say : NPR

MUKHMAS, West Bank — Israeli settlers within the occupied West Bank shot and killed a Palestinian American man throughout an assault on a village, the Palestinian Health Ministry and a witness mentioned Thursday.

Raed Abu Ali, a resident of Mukhmas, instructed a bunch of settlers got here to the village Wednesday afternoon the place they attacked a farmer, prompting clashes after residents intervened. Israeli forces later arrived, and in the course of the violence armed settlers killed 19-year-old Nasrallah Abu Siyam and injured a number of others.

Abu Ali mentioned that the military shot tear gasoline, sound grenades and reside ammunition. Israel’s army acknowledged utilizing what it referred to as “riot dispersal methods” after receiving stories of Palestinians throwing rocks however denied that its forces fired in the course of the clashes.

“When the settlers saw the army, they were encouraged and started shooting live bullets,” Abu Ali mentioned. He added that they clubbed these injured with sticks after that they had fallen to the bottom.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed Abu Siyam’s demise from vital wounds sustained Wednesday afternoon close to the village east of Ramallah.

Abu Siyam’s killing is the most recent in a surge in violence within the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces and settlers killed 240 Palestinians final 12 months, in accordance with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Palestinians killed 17 Israelis over the identical interval, six of whom have been troopers. The Palestinian Authority’s Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission mentioned Abu Siyam was the primary Palestinian killed by settlers in 2026.

Mukhmas and its surrounding space — most of which lies below Israeli civil and army administration — have turn out to be a scorching spot for settler assaults, together with arson and assaults, in addition to the development of outposts that Israeli regulation considers unlawful.

The Israeli army mentioned late Wednesday that unnamed suspects shot at Palestinians, who have been later evacuated for medical therapy. It didn’t say whether or not any have been arrested.

Abu Siyam’s mom instructed The Associated Press that he was an American citizen, making him the second Palestinian American particular person to be killed by Israeli settlers in lower than a 12 months.

A US embassy spokesperson mentioned they “condemn this violence.”

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

This is a locator map of Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

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UN says Israel’s acts in West Bank could also be ethnic cleaning

The UN human rights workplace on Thursday accused Israel of warfare crimes and mentioned practices that displace Palestinians and alter the demographic composition of the occupied West Bank “raise concerns over ethnic cleansing.”

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, citing findings collected November 2024 to October 2025, mentioned Israel was engaged in “concerted and accelerating effort to consolidate annexation” whereas sustaining a system “to maintain oppression and domination of Palestinians.”

Residents of Palestinian villages and herding communities have been more and more displaced as Israeli settlements and outposts increase. Since the beginning of the Israel–Hamas warfare, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem says about 45 Palestinian communities have been emptied out fully amid Israeli demolition orders and settler assaults.

Additionally, the workplace mentioned Israeli army operations within the northern West Bank “employed means and methods designed for warfare” together with deadly airstrikes and forcibly transferring civilians from their houses. It additionally mentioned Israel “forbade” residents from returning to their houses in northern West Bank refugee camps. The operation, which Israel mentioned was aimed towards militants, displaced tens of 1000’s of Palestinians.

The report additionally accused Palestinian safety forces of utilizing pointless deadly power in the identical areas, killing no less than eight folks, and famous that the Palestinian Authority had engaged in “intimidation, detention and ill-treatment of journalists, human rights defenders and other individuals deemed critical of its rule.”

Neither Israel’s Foreign Ministry nor the Palestinian Authority responded to requests for remark. Israel has repeatedly accused the UN rights workplace of anti-Israel bias.

Last 12 months, the UN human rights monitor warned of what it referred to as “an unfolding genocide in Gaza” with “conditions of life increasingly incompatible with (Palestinians’) continued existence.” Their report on Thursday additionally warned of demographic shifts in Gaza elevating issues of ethnic cleaning.

Report finds imprisoned Palestinian journalists have been tortured

The Committee to Protect Journalists mentioned that dozens of Palestinian journalists who have been detained in Israel in the course of the warfare in Gaza skilled circumstances together with bodily assaults, pressured stress positions, sensory deprivation, sexual violence and medical neglect.

CPJ documented the detention of no less than 94 Palestinian journalists and one media employee in the course of the warfare, from the West Bank, Gaza and Israel Thirty are nonetheless in custody, CPJ mentioned.

Half of the journalists, the report discovered, have been by no means charged with against the law and have been held below Israel’s administrative detention system, which permits suspects deemed safety dangers to be held for six months and could be renewed indefinitely.

Israel’s jail providers didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark concerning the report, however rejected an identical report in January about circumstances for Palestinian prisoners as “false allegations,” contending it operates lawfully, is topic to oversight and opinions complaints.

UN growth chief says eradicating Gaza rubble will take 7 years

The huge destruction throughout Gaza will take no less than seven years simply to take away the rubble, in accordance with the United Nations Development Program.

Alexander De Croo, the previous Belgian prime minister who simply returned from Gaza, mentioned that the UNDP had eliminated simply 0.5% of the rubble and folks in Gaza are experiencing “the worst living conditions that I have ever seen.”

De Croo mentioned 90% of Gaza’s 2.2 million folks reside in “very, very rudimentary tents” in the course of the rubble, which poses well being risks and a hazard from exploding weapons.

He mentioned UNDP has been in a position to construct 500 improved housing models, and has 4,000 extra which are prepared, however estimates the true want is 200,000 to 300,000 models. The models are meant for use quickly whereas reconstruction takes place. He referred to as on Israel to increase entry for items and objects wanted for reconstruction and the personal sector to start growth.