Hundreds gathered Wednesday in a village of the Israeli-occupied West Bank to mourn a young man who the Palestinian health ministry said was killed by Israeli settler gunfire.
Friends and relatives of 20-year-old Said al-Naasan, killed on Tuesday in Al-Mughayyir, carried his body through the village wrapped in a Palestinian flag with his head covered by a traditional keffiyeh.
The Ramallah-based health ministry said in a statement that Naasan was killed “by settler gunfire”, while the Israeli military said an off-duty soldier had fired shots after Palestinians had thrown stones.
The village’s mayor, Amin Abu Aliya, said that residents on Tuesday evening saw “several armed settlers herding cattle near homes on the eastern side (of the village)”.
“They opened fire on residents there, critically wounding the martyr, who later died from his wounds,” Abu Aliya added.
In response to a question from AFP, the Israeli military said the incident occurred during “a violent confrontation in which a dozen Palestinians hurled rocks at Israeli civilians in a pasture in the area of Al-Mughayyir”, using a term it usually uses to refer to settlers. Israeli settlers in the West Bank also serve in the army, and sometimes carry their weapons with them when off duty.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
In a separate incident, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces shot dead a man in his 20s in the West Bank town of Anza Wednesday. In a statement, the Israeli military said that during “operational activity in the area of Anza, a fighter hurled an explosive device towards (Israeli) soldiers operating in the area.”
“The soldiers responded with fire and eliminated the fighter,” it said, adding there were no injuries to Israeli troops. Violence in the West Bank has soared since the October 2023 Hamas storming of Israel.
Since then, Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 981 Palestinians in the West Bank, including many fighters, according to health ministry figures.
Palestinian women mourn during the funeral of 20-year-old Said al-Naasan, who was killed during clashes with Israeli settlers the previous day, in the occupied West Bank village of Al-Mughayyir, north of Ramallah, Wednesday.
