Two Palestinian teenagers were killed yesterday during a confrontation involving Israeli settlers and soldiers in the occupied West Bank, according to local officials and the Palestinian health ministry.
The victims were 16 and 19 years old, officials said. Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that both were killed in al-Mughayyir, a village near Ramallah.
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In a statement, the Israeli military said its forces had entered al-Mughayyir to protect police officers and an Israeli civilian who was attempting to recover livestock.
The deaths came as violence and intimidation by Jewish settlers in the West Bank intensify
The military said troops opened fire and struck “key instigators” during what it described as a “violent disturbance,” after stones were thrown at the forces. The incident, it added, remained under investigation.
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has overseen the expansion of settlements across the West Bank, territory Israel captured during the 1967 war.
Israel has created dozens of new settlements and settler outposts in the area.
Rights groups say the growing presence of settlers around Palestinian villages forms part of a broader campaign to take control of additional Palestinian land, steadily shrinking the territory where Palestinians seek to establish an independent state.
