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The Palestinian health ministry identified the victims as youths aged 16 and 19 while a local official informed WAFA news agency that the deaths occurred in al-Mughayyir near Ramallah. According to the head of the village council Amin Abu Alia, Israeli settlers attempted to steal sheep from two homes in the village and a confrontation followed before the army imposed a siege and raided the center. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that the teenagers were critically wounded by live fire one in the neck and one in the back before they were transferred to hospitals in Ramallah where they were pronounced dead.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces had entered al-Mughayyir to provide security for police officers and an Israeli civilian seeking to retrieve livestock. Troops fired on key instigators of a violent disturbance during which people hurled stones and cinder blocks at the forces the military added noting that the matter was under review. Reuters reported that the military described the response as necessary to remove the threat posed to its personnel.
Al Jazeera reported that village sources said snipers had taken positions on rooftops ahead of the incident while footage from a Ramallah medical center showed mourners gathering around one of the bodies draped in a Palestinian flag. A local council head told AFP that residents tried to confront the settlers leading to the escalation involving both settlers and soldiers. The sequence of events could not be independently verified by all parties involved in the reporting.
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs data places the number of Palestinians killed by settlers or Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank at least at 79 including 19 children since the beginning of 2026. The agency has also documented at least 1,870 wounded in related incidents over the period. Al-Mughayyir has faced repeated settler attacks in recent months often centered on the village access road where vehicles have been targeted according to the UN agency.
A UN human rights office report earlier in 2026 highlighted that settler attacks causing casualties or property damage now average more than three per day across the territory. The assessment found that more than 2,200 Palestinians have been displaced this year due to settler violence and associated access restrictions. OHCHR experts have warned that such actions are occurring with a high degree of impunity and are contributing to broader patterns of displacement.
The incident follows a wave of intensified settler violence after an August siege on the village of Qusra that drew international condemnation Reuters reported. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has advanced rapid expansion of settlements in the West Bank territory captured by Israel in the 1967 war and claimed by Palestinians as part of a future state. Settlement activity has coincided with tightened movement restrictions on nearby Palestinian communities according to UN monitoring.
