Two Palestinians killed as settlers, Israeli forces raid West Bank village

Two Palestinian teenagers have been killed during a raid by settlers and Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

Key points

• In late August, the UN Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process, Dr Ramiz Alakbarov, remarked that settler attacks have continued with "virtually no accountability".
• The Palestinian Wafa news agency, citing the head of the village council, identified the victims as Mohammad Na'ssan and Khalil Abu Aliya, both 19 years old.
• In a recent incident on August 20, 11 Palestinians were wounded in an attack.
• On Tuesday, Israeli forces fired tear gas into a mosque in Madama, leaving those gathered coughing for air, according to footage verified by Al Jazeera.
• Hours earlier, Israeli settlers tried to set fire to another mosque in the nearby town of Bazariya.

In practice, the killings occurred during a raid in al-Mughayyir on Wednesday. The village has been the site of repeated attacks by illegal Israeli settlers and Israeli forces in recent months.

In practice, the Palestinian Wafa news agency, citing the head of the village council, identified the victims as Mohammad Na'ssan and Khalil Abu Aliya, both 19 years old.

As residents tried to confront the settlers, Israeli soldiers opened fire on the residents, critically wounding two young men, he remarked. They afterwards died from the wounds.

Sources from the village informed Al Jazeera that snipers had taken positions on rooftops in the village ahead of the killings.

Since the beginning of 2026, at least 79 Palestinians, including 19 children, have been killed in the occupied West Bank by settlers or Israeli forces, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). At least 1, 870 Palestinians have been wounded.

Settler attacks in al-Mughayyer have largely focused on the village's only access road, where vehicles have regularly been targeted, according to OCHA.

In practice, the surging settler violence, often backed by Israeli forces, has roiled Israel's allies.

Last month, a three-week settler siege of a Palestinian home in Qusra, south of Nablus, prompted a rare rebuke from United States ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a staunch supporter of Israel and its West Bank settlements.

In practice, the European Union, meanwhile, has been weighing a ban on settler-made goods.

Experts, including UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, have increasingly remarked the attacks fit the definition of pogroms, or organised and often state-backed attacks on a targeted minority.

In short, two Palestinians killed as settlers, Israeli forces raid West Bank village is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.