An Israeli soldier wounded a Palestinian man in the leg after settlers confronted villagers over grazing livestock on Palestinian-owned land in the West Bank town of Faqqua.
Witnesses reported that settlers entered the area with their livestock, prompting locals to attempt to stop them. Israeli forces subsequently intervened and, according to eyewitnesses, opened fire on the residents. One of the soldiers shot Qassem Hussam, a Palestinian man in his mid-30s, hitting him in the leg.
In a statement to The Guardian, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed receiving a report of the incident and acknowledged that the individual who fired was one of its soldiers.
“Earlier today [Saturday], a report was received regarding friction between Israeli civilians and Palestinians near Faqqua,” the IDF stated. “An IDF force present at the scene fired into the air and toward a Palestinian.”
Mohammed al-Sheikh, 34, who was standing beside Hussam, told The Guardian that the confrontation started when villagers encountered Israeli settlers grazing livestock on Palestinian-owned land.
“Then the Israeli soldiers arrived,” al-Sheikh recounted. “They began shooting. One soldier shot Hussam, and he fell to the ground. We immediately rushed to help him and move him away. We couldn’t get an ambulance to the area, so we took him to the hospital in a private car.”
The Palestine Red Crescent reported that Hussam was transported to the hospital in a light-to-moderate condition.
The Israeli military stated that the incident is under review by commanders and that its findings will be forwarded to the relevant authorities for examination. The IDF added that the military is investigating the soldier who shot the Palestinian man, reportedly in violation of army protocol, according to the Times of Israel.
Footage from the incident shows a group of Israeli soldiers and settlers confronting unarmed Palestinian men before gunshots are fired.
This incident is the latest to raise questions about the Israeli government’s ability or willingness to curb violent settlers in the occupied West Bank, where attacks have continued to increase.
On 8 September, the UK prime minister stated he would “not stand by” as horrific suffering continued, writing in The Guardian that the UK had been hesitant to act for too long, “fearful of being accused of being anti-Israel”.
UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced that the government now officially considers Israel’s occupation of the West Bank to be entirely unlawful and declared sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements.
This dramatic shift in the UK’s position followed a summer of intense diplomacy against a backdrop of rising settler violence in the West Bank, prompting 12 countries, including France and Canada, to announce sanctions.
After Miliband described violent Jewish settler activity in the occupied West Bank as “ethnic cleansing” carried out with the tacit backing of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced retaliatory measures, including the closure of the consulate and entry bans on several Members of Parliament.
This marked the latest stage in a rapidly worsening dispute between the two nations, with diplomatic relations at their lowest point in years, even as violence in the West Bank continues.
Israeli forces also conducted raids across the Jenin governorate on Saturday, arresting six people and injuring a 14-year-old boy who suffered a broken hand, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Soldiers also raided several villages around Jenin, while forces entered at least five towns in the Bethlehem governorate and established a checkpoint at Za’atara.
East of Ramallah, Israeli settlers attacked the outskirts of Burqa, throwing stones at homes and vehicles.
On 4 September, two Palestinian teenagers were shot dead in al-Mughayyir after settlers entered the village under police and military escort and took dozens of sheep from a Palestinian home, residents and Israeli activists said.
The victims were Khalil Abu Alia, 16, and Omar al-Nassan, 19. Three other pupils from their school of 470 students had already been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers this year.
According to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 1,111 Palestinians, including at least 243 children, have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 7 October 2023.