Escalating violence in the West Bank

What happened:

The body of a missing 14-year-old Israeli teenager, Binyamin Achimair, was found in the occupied West Bank, and Israeli authorities claimed it was a “terrorist attack”.
Dozens of Israeli settlers stormed into a Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, shooting and setting houses and cars on fire, resulting in the death of one Palestinian man and 25 others wounded.

Israeli settlers were filmed lighting a car on fire in the West Bank village of Deir Dibwan, and hundreds of Israeli settlers surrounded Palestinian villages and attacked residents across the occupied West Bank, according to eyewitnesses. [middleeasteye.net, cnn.com]

What is international media saying:

The violence was triggered by the killing of the Israeli teenager in what the Israeli military said was a “terrorist attack”, and the Israeli army said it was searching for the 14-year-old boy and that forces had opened fire when stones were hurled at soldiers by Palestinians. [ft.com, nytimes.com, theguardian.com, cnn.com, apnews.com]
Videos show settlers setting houses and cars ablaze in the village of Duma, southeast of Nablus, and firing gunshots in the area, resulting in clashes with Palestinians, and an Israeli journalist and photographer, Shaul Golan, was brutally beaten by the settlers while trying to document their actions. [cnn.com, middleeastmonitor.com]
The UN has recorded 727 attacks by settlers on Palestinians since the outbreak of the war, and in response to the violence, several western countries have imposed financial sanctions and travel restrictions on settlers involved in some of the most extreme violence. [ft.com]

What is Israeli media saying:

Violent clashes erupted between Israeli settlers and Palestinians following the discovery of Binyamin Achimair’s body, who was murdered by terrorists, with settler retaliatory actions against Palestinians beginning on Friday, long before the discovery of Achimeir’s body. [ynetnews.com]
The 14-year-old Achimeir was killed in what the IDF and Shin Bet designated as a terror attack, and his murder may ignite a wave of nationalist attacks similar to what erupted around the village of Hawara after the murder of the brothers Hallel and Yagel Yaniv in February 2023. [timesofisrael.com, ynetnews.com]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have addressed the looming clashes and the need for security forces to deploy in the West Bank to serve as a buffer between settlers and Palestinians, while appealing to the public not to hinder the work of the security forces. [ynetnews.com, timesofisrael.com]

What is Arab media saying:

Dozens of Israeli settlers have stormed Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank, setting fire to homes, attacking Palestinians, and leaving at least one resident killed and dozens more wounded, as violence in the region soars. [aljazeera.com, newarab.com, palestinechronicle.com]
A Palestinian man was killed in an attack by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, where tensions remain high amid fears of more violence. [aljazeera.com, english.aawsat.com]
Dozens of settlers stormed the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, killing one Palestinian and wounding at least 25 people after a 14-year-old Israeli settler went missing. [aljazeera.com]
Mobs of Jewish settlers have continued their rampage across the occupied West Bank, killing another young Palestinian man, setting fire to homes, and attacking an ambulance. [palestinechronicle.com]
The attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian villages will not discourage the Palestinian people from standing on their land. [arabnews.com]
Raids by Israeli settlers and soldiers against occupied West Bank towns and villages have increased since the outbreak of the war on Gaza on October 7, killing hundreds of Palestinians. [aljazeera.com]

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