Two Palestinian men have been killed by live fire during a coordinated attack carried out by Israeli settlers and backed by regular Israeli military forces in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, according to local Palestinian officials. The Palestinian Ministry of Health has publicly identified the deceased victims: 26-year-old Ahmad Adel Abu Mukho and 53-year-old Odeh Abdul Rahim Odeh Farakhneh.
The assault unfolded after nightfall in Deir Jarir, a small town located northeast of Ramallah, when a group of armed Israeli settlers entered the populated area, local Palestinian media reports confirm. Eid Hammad, who leads the Deir Jarir village council, told reporters that settlers first broke into a residential property in the town’s old quarter and stole a flock of sheep belonging to the local homeowner. When local residents mobilized to intervene and halt the incursion, settlers and accompanying Israeli soldiers opened live fire on the crowd, Hammad said.
Hammad added that Israeli military forces blocked emergency medical ambulances from reaching the shooting site to treat the wounded. The Palestine Red Crescent Society further confirmed that Israeli troops also opened direct fire on one of its ambulances responding to the incident, endangering medical personnel.
Settler violence targeting Palestinian communities has been a persistent reality for Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank for decades, but UN and Palestinian official data shows that attacks have spiked dramatically since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023. Today, settlers carry out near-daily assaults on Palestinian towns and villages, ranging from arson and property vandalism to violent physical attacks and efforts to forcibly displace local communities. Most of these attacks occur with explicit military protection from Israeli forces, according to multiple international investigations.
The escalation of violence continued in the days leading up to the Deir Jarir attack: on Saturday, settlers set fire to a privately owned Palestinian home in the village of Tell, southwest of Nablus, while Israeli military forces burned dozens of mature olive trees— a critical source of income for many Palestinian agricultural families— in Deir Qaddis, west of Ramallah.
Last month, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory released a report documenting an unprecedented, sustained surge in settler violence against Palestinian civilians across the West Bank. The commission concluded that the Israeli government actively facilitates these attacks through direct financial backing, logistical support, and military protection for settler groups. “Violence by settlers is the direct outcome of Israeli policies that support, enable and protect their actions,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, the commission’s chair.
The UN report recorded that settlers killed seven Palestinians and injured 832 more in 2025, representing a 130 percent increase in fatal attacks compared to 2024. This sharp upward trend has continued into 2026, with documented attacks reported on an almost daily basis. Official data from the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission shows that at least 50 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers since October 2023, with at least 15 of those fatalities recorded in the first half of 2026.