Palestinian Youth Killed by Settler gunfire in West Bank Town of Kubar
A 19-year-old Palestinian, Bahaa Sami Amin Al-Natsheh, was killed on October 2, 2026, after being shot in the village of Kuubar north of Ramallah. QNA reported that the teenager succumbed to critical wounds sustained during a settler attack, while Palestinian health officials and local accounts detailed contrasting sequences involving both armed settlers and the Israeli military.
Fatal Shooting in Kuubar and Divergent Local Accounts
The circumstances surrounding the death of Al-Natsheh diverged between official agency reports and local municipal testimony. The Palestinian Ministry of Health stated that the 19-year-old from Kafr Aqab, north of Jerusalem, died after being shot by settlers during a raid on Kuubar. Conversely, Kuubar mayor Munir Badwan told AFP that settlers attacked a group of young Palestinians who approached a metal gate leading to a nearby outpost, which triggered confrontations. Badwan stated that the settlers called in Israeli occupation forces, who immediately opened fire upon arrival, struck Al-Natsheh, and subsequently left him bleeding on the ground while blocking medical teams from rendering aid.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society corroborated that Israeli forces prevented their ambulances from reaching the wounded individuals in Kuubar and demanded that medical crews leave the site. During the ensuing military incursion, occupation forces also fired tear gas canisters at residents, injuring one Palestinian in the head with a gas canister, though medical personnel described that injury as minor. The Israeli military stated to AFP that it was checking the incident.
Settlers and Israeli Forces Injure Palestinians in West Bank
This incident followed the killing of another Palestinian man a day earlier. Local reports noted that settlers from the Havat Anton outpost attacked the Nasba area east of Yasuf, where Israeli forces fired live ammunition, injuring two Palestinians—one in the abdomen and another with a live ammunition shrapnel in the flank—alongside conducting arrests.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) documented more than 1,600 settler attacks resulting in injuries or property damage across the occupied West Bank between January and August 2026. Official tallies show that at least 1,113 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the territory since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023. Concurrently, official Israeli figures record at least 49 Israelis killed in Palestinian attacks or during confrontations with Israeli forces over the same period. Excluding East Jerusalem, approximately three million Palestinians live in the West Bank alongside more than 500,000 Israelis residing in settlements.
Diplomatic Condemnation and Calls for Accountability
In response to the killings, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement demanding that the international community and global institutions take immediate legal and practical steps to end what it termed the terrorism practiced by settler gangs in the West Bank. The ministry called for accountability mechanisms, including sanctions on settlement figures, bans on goods from settlements, and the activation of universal jurisdiction. Mahmoud Mardawi also issued a statement condemning the Yasuf attack as part of a coordinated pattern of violence carried out under military cover.
The Israeli military maintained that its forces deployed live fire after stone-throwers targeted Israeli civilians and soldiers on the outskirts of Yasuf, resulting in injuries to an Israeli civilian and subsequent suspect arrests.