LONDON: Israeli settlers’ gunfire killed two Palestinians, including a school student, and left several others injured in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday afternoon.
The Ministry of Health confirmed the deaths of student Aws Al-Naasan, 14, and Marzouq Abu Naim, 32, while live bullets injured three others during an attack by settlers on Al-Mughayyir Boys School, in a town east of Ramallah.
A settler also killed a third Palestinian on Tuesday morning in the West Bank. According to the Wafa news agency, the victim was identified as 16-year-old Muhammad Al-Jaabari. He was struck and killed by an Israeli settler who ran over him by a vehicle near Hebron.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Health announced that 49-year-old Raja Bitawi died on Tuesday from wounds inflicted by Israeli army gunfire in Jenin nearly two years earlier.
Last month, the UK and EU both condemned the rise in settler violence and urged the Israeli government to halt further attacks and “to protect the Palestinian population in the occupied territory.”
At least 497 attacks have been perpetrated by Israeli settlers in the West Bank in March, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission. The majority of these attacks took place in Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah, and Jerusalem.
All settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law. Excluding East Jerusalem, which was occupied by Israel in 1967, about 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, alongside about 3 million Palestinians.
