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 a witness said Thursday.
Raed Abu Ali, a resident of Mukhmas, said a group of settlers came to the village Wednesday afternoon where they attacked a farmer, prompting 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 that the army shot tear gas, sound grenades and live ammunition. Israel's military acknowledged using what it called “riot dispersal methods” after receiving reports of Palestinians throwing rocks but denied that its forces fired during the clashes.
“When the settlers saw the army, they were encouraged and started shooting live bullets,” Abu Ali said. He added that they clubbed those injured with sticks after they had fallen to the ground. The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed Abu Siyam's death from critical wounds sustained Wednesday afternoon near the village east of Ramallah.
Abu Siyam's killing is the latest in a surge in violence in the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces and settlers killed 240 Palestinians last year, according to the United Nations office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Palestinians killed 17 Israelis over the same period, six of whom were soldiers. The Palestinian Authority's Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said Abu Siyam was the first Palestinian killed by settlers in 2026.
Mukhmas and its surrounding areas, most of which lies under Israeli civil and military administration, have become a hot spot 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 shot at Palestinians, who were later evacuated for medical treatment. It did not say whether any were arrested.
Abu Siyam's mother said that he was an American citizen, making him the second Palestinian American person to be killed by Israeli settlers in less than a year. A US embassy spokesperson said they “condemn this violence." Palestinians and rights groups say authorities routinely fail to prosecute settlers or hold them accountable for violence.
Meanwhile, the UN human rights office on Thursday accused Israel of war crimes and said 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, said Israel was engaged in “concerted and accelerating effort to consolidate annexation” while maintaining a system “to maintain oppression and domination of Palestinians.”
Residents of Palestinian villages and herding communities have been increasingly displaced as Israeli settlements and outposts expand. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli rights group B'Tselem says about 45 Palestinian communities have been emptied out completely amid Israeli demolition orders and settler attacks.
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