Occupied West Bank (QNN)- Israeli occupation forces shot and killed two Palestinian children on Thursday during a raid in the occupied West Bank, then withheld their bodies, amid a surge in Israeli attacks on Palestinians. The two children were shot dead by Israeli forces in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron on Thursday evening, local sources confirmed. Israeli soldiers opened fire on the two in the southern part of the town, before seizing their bodies and declaring the area a closed military zone. The two boys were identified as Mohamed Abu Ayyash and Belal Ba’aran. Hamas condemned Israel’s targeting and killing of children in the occupied West Bank, describing the killing of the two as a “heinous crime,” and said in a Thursday statement that Israel continues its “aggressive actions against the Palestinian people and their land.” Surge in Israeli Attacks Last week, the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CRRC) reported that forces and settlers carried out 2,350 attacks across the West Bank last month in an “ongoing cycle of terror”. CRRC head Mu’ayyad Sha’ban said Israeli forces carried out 1,584 attacks – including direct physical attacks, the demolition of homes and the uprooting of olive trees – with most of the violence focused on the governorates of Ramallah (542), Nablus (412) and Hebron (401). The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also said there were more than 260 settler attacks last month in the occupied West Bank, an average of eight per day, resulting in injuries, property damage, or both. It said October saw the highest monthly number of settler attacks in the occupied West Bank since the organisation began documenting the situation in 2006. One in every five Palestinians killed by Israeli forces so far in 2025 across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was a child, the office added. According to the UN, Israeli attacks and settler violence in the West Bank have killed 1,066 Palestinians and injured around 10,000 since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza in October 2023. More than 20,000 Palestinians have been kidnapped, including 1,600 children. On Monday, B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, said settlers were attacking Palestinians “daily”, including “shooting, beating and threatening residents, throwing stones, torching fields, destroying trees and crops, stealing produce, blocking roads, invading homes, and burning cars”. Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. Today, 600,000 to 750,000 settlers live in more than 250 settlements and outposts across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.