Zionist settlers kill 2 Palestinians, set up new outpost in occupied West Bank
Zionist illegal settlers killed two Palestinians on Friday in northern Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and set up a tent on top of a hill in the town of Sa’ir near Hebron in preparation for a new settlement outpost.
Palestinian news agency WAFA, citing the local health ministry, said Saif al-Din Kamel Abdul Karim Muslat, 23, who also holds US citizenship, died after being brutally beaten by illegal settlers in the town of Sinjil on Friday evening in an attack that injured 10 others.
Hours later, the ministry said Mohammed al-Shalabi, 23, was killed after being shot by illegal settlers in the town north of Ramallah.
“The medical report confirmed his death as a result of a live bullet wound to the chest, which penetrated the back, and that he was left to bleed for hours,” the source added.
The U.S. State Department said on Friday it was aware of the death of a U.S. citizen in the occupied West Bank after reports emerged of “Israeli” settlers fatally beating a Palestinian American.
Meanwhile in Sa’ir, located in northern Hebron, illegal settlers erected a tent on Jabal al-Hadib hill in what locals said is a step toward establishing a new outpost, according to Bassam Al-Qawasmeh, one of the area landowners.
Al-Qawasmeh said settlers previously fenced off hundreds of dunums on the hill and prevented owners from entering, under the protection of the Zionist forces.
“Everything happening is with the backing and incitement of the Israeli government,” warning that settlers “try to seize a small area first, then expand gradually to build a larger settlement and confiscate thousands of dunums,” he added.
He stressed that “Palestinians will not allow this and will defend their land at any cost.”
The move comes days after illegal settlers established another new outpost on Jabal al-Jumjuma in Halhul, north of Hebron, where mobile rooms were placed and raised an “Israeli” flag.
According to the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, the number of illegal settlers in the West Bank reached around 770,000 by the end of 2024, spread across 180 settlements and 256 outposts, including 138 designated as agricultural or grazing outposts.
The Commission also recorded 2,153 settler attacks in the first half of the year alone, resulting in the killing of four Palestinians.
Since the start of the Zionist occupation’s genocidal war on Gaza, at least 998 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by occupation forces and illegal settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
