Israeli forces kill two Palestinian teens after settlers surround village

Israelis have killed two teenagers in a Palestinian village surrounded by settlers, and Israeli troops have demolished an entire village outside Hebron, in the latest incidents of a wave of Israeli violence and displacement across the occupied West Bank.

The shooting victims were identified as Khalil Abu Alia, 16, who was preparing to start 11th grade at the al-Mughayyir boys school, and Omar al-Nassan, 19, who had recently graduated from the same school with high marks.

According to village residents and Israeli activists, the teenagers were killed shortly after sunset when a group of settlers, accompanied by police and military personnel, entered the village to take dozens of sheep from a Palestinian household.

Waheed Abu Naim, Abu Alia's English teacher, said in a phone interview that snipers positioned themselves on rooftops and one shot Abu Alia in the neck as he stood on the doorstep of his home. Residents and activists reported that Al-Nassan was shot twice, including once in the back. Neither teenager survived long enough to reach the hospital.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military said that Israeli police, army personnel and settlers entered the village to retrieve sheep that settlers claimed belonged to them from a Palestinian home. The spokesperson offered no evidence of ownership, theft, or any investigation into the alleged stolen property.

The spokesperson stated that when Palestinians attempted to resist the seizure of the sheep by throwing stones and cinder blocks, troops opened fire. "The forces responded by firing at key instigators in order to remove the threat. Hits were identified."

Abu Alia was confirmed killed by a soldier. It remains unclear whether Al-Nassan was shot by a soldier or a settler.

Three other students from the school, which has 470 students, had already been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers earlier this year. The other victims include a 17-year-old member of the Palestinian youth football team shot in June, a 14-year-old killed at the school gate in April, and another 14-year-old shot outside the village mosque in January.

Abu Naim, who taught all five boys, said: "We don't know how long these crimes are going to continue." He added that many more of his students had been wounded in Israeli attacks and that his own brother had been killed by settlers in April.

"With the new semester starting in three days, we are making extra security preparations this week," he said. The community has built a higher wall topped by a fence around the school and reinforced the gates to the compound. Contingency teaching plans are also being prepared because the village has been under a tightening siege for the past two weeks.

Since late 2023, Israeli barricades have blocked all but one road into the village, and at least eight settler outposts encircle it in every direction. In late August, soldiers and settlers began closing that remaining route for hours at a time, establishing a temporary checkpoint near the school in the morning and evening.

Abu Naim reported that at least eight families have fled in the past week because they could no longer commute to work, and have rented flats elsewhere. Of the school's 26 teachers, only nine live in the village, and there are concerns that the other two-thirds may be prevented from reaching their classrooms on Monday.

In the South Hebron Hills, Israeli forces spent the day demolishing the homes of 12 Palestinian families in the community of Khirbet a-Taban. All 70 residents are now homeless, including 28 children.

The Israeli-Palestinian rights group B'Tselem reported that Israeli troops demolished all buildings and destroyed water cisterns, storage facilities, livestock pens, and caves.

According to the group, this is the 66th Palestinian community that has been wiped out since October 2023, with 18 others partly displaced. Nearly 5,000 people have been forced from their homes, almost half of them children.

Yuli Novak, executive director of B'Tselem, said: "Israel is continuing to erase Palestinian communities at an accelerating pace as part of the ethnic cleansing it is carrying out in the West Bank. The world continues to stand by as Palestinians and their lives are left completely exposed to Israeli violence."

A spokesperson for Cogat, the Israeli military agency that manages civilian affairs in occupied Palestine, said troops were conducting "enforcement activity" against illegal construction in a military training zone.

In 1981, Israel designated the Masafer Yatta area, which includes Khirbet a-Taban, as Firing Zone 918. Since then, it has been working to displace the roughly 1,200 Palestinian residents who remain. They have been fighting expulsion in Israeli courts for decades, which has slowed but not stopped demolitions.