Dozens of Israeli settlers surged into a Palestinian village in the West Bank yesterday,burning cars and killing at least one person,Israeli authorities admitted yesterday.
The Palestinian health ministry said one 23-year-old man was killed and another suffered a critical gunshot wound in the chest when Israeli settlers opened fire in the village of Jit,the latest in a series of attacks by violent settlers in the West Bank.
Shocking footage circulated on social media showed houses and cars smouldering after being set alight by Molotov cocktails thrown by the Israeli settlers.
The fatal attacks came hours after an Israeli airstrike in the West Bank killed two other young Palestinians.
More than 600 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed since October 7,most of whom died as a result of incursions by Israeli settlers.
The White House,whose diplomats are now engaged in a fresh round of ceasefire talks with international mediators,declared Israeli settlers' attacks in the West Bank 'unacceptable' and insisted they 'must stop.'
'Israeli authorities must take measures to protect all communities from harm,this includes intervening to stop such violence,and holding all perpetrators of such violence to account,' a White House spokesperson added.
Men carry the coffin of Hezbollah fighter Mohamad Bader el Dine who was killed in an Israeli drone strike on his car on August 14,in the Christian village of Marjayoun during his funeral on August 15,2024 in Harouf,Lebanon
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the heavily guarded border on October 7 in an attack that shocked Israel's vaunted security and intelligence services.
The fighters rampaged through farming communities and army bases,killing around 1,200 people,mostly civilians,and abducted an additional 250 people.
More than 100 were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November,and around 110 are believed to still be inside Gaza - though Israeli authorities believe around a third of them have died in captivity.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 40,005 Palestinians,Gaza's Health Ministry said Thursday,without saying how many were militants.
The offensive has reduced much of the territory to rubble and has driven the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people from their homes,often multiple times.
'Oh Lord,we hope they reach an agreement and the war ends,because the population has been annihilated completely,' Abu Nidal Eweini told AP reporters in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah.
'People have no breath left in them anymore. People are tired.'
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