Illegal Israeli settlers kill Palestinian, wound 8 others in West Bank town attack

Illegal Israeli settlers killed a Palestinian and injured eight others on Saturday evening during an attack in the town of Aqraba, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, Anadolu reports.

The group said in a statement that its teams reported “one martyr and eight injuries from the settlers’ assault on Aqraba, including an elderly man.”

It said ambulances transported the wounded to hospitals, saying two young men were shot in the legs and a 50-year-old man sustained a gunshot wound to the hand.

For its part, the Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the victim as 24-year-old Muin Asfar, who was killed by settler gunfire in the town of Aqraba.

Palestine’s official Voice of Palestine radio said settlers had attacked Palestinian farmland on the outskirts of Aqraba, and shared videos it said showed settlers opening fire on residents in the Mafhuriya plain area, near the towns of Aqraba and Jurish, southeast of Nablus.

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According to data from the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, illegal settlers carried out 2,153 attacks in the West Bank during the first half of this year, killing four Palestinians.

The number of Palestinians killed by settler gunfire since the beginning of 2025 has risen to nine, while the death toll since Oct. 7, 2023, has reached 31, amid a surge in settler attacks across the West Bank, often carried out with the direct complicity of Israeli forces, added the commission.

Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, at least 1,012 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal. It demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.​​​​​​​

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