Occupied West Bank (QNN)- A 15-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli forces during a military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, marking the fifth Palestinian killed by Israeli forces and settlers in three days amid a surge in attacks.
Local sources confirmed that the teenager, Yousef Ashtiyeh, suffered critical injuries after being struck by live ammunition in the shoulder by Israeli soldiers and was transferred to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Abood al-Aker, communications director for the municipality, told the AFP news agency that six Israeli military vehicles had arrived in Nablus in the morning.
He added the soldiers spoke to shop owners in the Rafidia district’s commercial area and shot the teenager as they were exiting the city. He was just returning home from school.
“We don’t know why they shot this kid on their way out,” he said.
The Israeli military claimed a Palestinian hurled stones towards its forces during an “operational activity” in the area of Nablus and forces initiated “standard suspect apprehension procedures, which concluded with fire being directed at the suspect”.
The military added that they were aware of reports that a Palestinian was killed at the scene.
Palestinian teacher Ahmed Atallah shared a photo of student Yousef Ashtiyeh's English midterm exam paper, saying he was killed just hours after the exam.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli settlers shot and killed a 25-year-old Palestinian man in Deir Dibwan town near Ramallah Wednesday.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Thursday, 16 Palestinians have been killed since the start of 2026. The youngest of the victims was a 13-year-old child, while the oldest was 60 years old.
Four Palestinians were killed on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Health, including two in an attack by Israeli settlers on al-Mughayyir village, east of Ramallah.
The Ministry said a 14-year-old school student, Aws Hamdi al-Na’san, and 32-year-old parent Jihad Marzouq Abu Na’im were shot dead when settlers attacked the al-Mughayyir Boys School. Four others were wounded. Local officials said Israeli soldiers opened fire while protecting the settlers.
Bassam Abu-Assaf, the principal of the all-boys school that came under fire, said at least five armed settlers had approached the village of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, around noon. Some of the students were outside in the schoolyard when the gunfire began, he added.
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The same day, in Hebron, 16-year-old Mohammad Majdi al-Jaabari was killed when he was struck by a vehicle belonging to a security convoy escorting an Israeli minister near the settlement of Kiryat Arba. The teenager had been cycling to school shortly after dawn when he was run over.
A 49-year-old died from injuries sustained when Israeli forces shot her during a raid on the West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp.
Israeli settlers and forces are carrying out intensified and increasingly violent attacks in the occupied West Bank with the purpose of forcing Palestinians out of their homes and lands.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 1,152 Palestinians, including 239 children, have been killed and more than 11,885 injured in the West Bank since October 7, 2023. At least 48 Palestinians have been killed since the start of this year; about 16 of them by settlers.
According to OCHA, between 7 October 2023 and 22 April 2026, 1,081 Palestinians – at least 235 of them children – were killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Thirty-five of them have been killed since the beginning of 2026.
The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, an official agency, said Israeli forces and settlers carried out a total of 1,819 attacks in March alone, including 1,322 by the Israeli forces and 497 by settlers.
Violence and harassment by Israeli settlers continued unabated across the occupied West Bank, OCHA added. The attacks have risen dramatically since the start of the genocide in Gaza.
Settler violence has also become a key driver of forced displacement in the occupied West Bank.
The attacks included sustained harassment, intimidation and the destruction of Palestinian homes, farmland and livelihoods.
Israeli soldiers and settlers are also using gendered violence and sexual assault and harassment to force Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank, human rights and legal experts said this week.
Palestinian women, men and children have reported attacks, forced nudity, invasive and painful body cavity searches, Israelis exposing their genitals, including to minors, and threats of sexual violence.
“Sexualized violence is used to pressure communities, shape decisions about remaining or leaving their homes and land, and alter patterns of daily life,” the group of international humanitarian organisations said in a report.
“To force Palestinians out, settlers resort to harassment, intimidation and violence, “with the backing of the Israeli government and military”, Peace Now said.
“No one is putting the pressure on Israel or on the Israeli authorities to stop this and so the settlers feel it, they feel the complete impunity that they’re just free to continue to do this,” said Allegra Pacheco, director of the West Bank Protection Consortium, a group of NGOs working to support Palestinian communities against displacement.
Recently, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned in a report that Israeli policies in the West Bank – including “the systematic unlawful use of force by Israeli security forces” and unlawful demolitions of Palestinian homes – aim to uproot Palestinian communities.
“These violations, together with pervasive and growing settler violence committed with impunity, are fundamental to the coercive environment that induces forced displacement and forcible transfer, which is a war crime,” the report said.
It added that these policies are aimed at “altering the character, status and demographic composition of the occupied West Bank, raising serious concerns of ethnic cleansing”.
Human rights groups say the Israeli occupation has allowed the settlers to operate with total impunity in their attacks against Palestinians.
Israeli organization B’Tselem has accused Israel of actively aiding the settlers’ violence “as part of a strategy to cement the takeover of Palestinian land”.
The UN also warned last year that settler attacks were being carried out “with the acquiescence, support, and in some cases participation, of Israeli security forces”.
