Israeli settlers shot and seriously injured two Palestinians in the northern occupied West Bank on Friday, Palestinian health officials said in what authorities described as the latest incident in a wave of violence in the part of the settlers. .
The injured were being treated at a hospital in Qusra, near the West Bank city of Nablus, the Palestinian health ministry said, without identifying the victims.
According to Ghassan Douglas, a Palestinian official guarding Israeli outposts in the Nablus area, a group of armed settlers from a nearby settlement approached the town on Thursday evening and Palestinians took to the streets to see what that was happening.
One of the Israelis opened fire on the residents, hitting one man in the stomach and another in the thigh, Douglas said, adding that the shots were unprovoked.
Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene to break up the fighting, said the army, which said it was aware that two Palestinians had been taken to hospital with gunshot wounds.
Attacks by Israeli settlers have increased, particularly in the northern West Bank. Many towns in the region have found themselves caught between unauthorized settlements and outposts that house more radicalized residents.
In January, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem recorded a series of incidents near Nablus, from Palestinian settlers throwing stones in Qusra to burning Palestinian cars in Aqraba. Earlier this month, a settler shot and killed a Palestinian in the farming village of Salfit.
“Now we see these kinds of events every few weeks,” Douglas said, describing settler violence as an attempt to drive villagers off their land.
The United Nations recorded more than 630 settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank last year, up from 496 in 2021. This includes both property damage and physical assaults.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the Six Day War of 1967. The Palestinians want these territories for their future state. At least 700,000 Israeli settlers live in dozens of outposts across the West Bank and are protected by the Israeli army.