Two Palestinian Teenagers Killed During Joint Settler and Israeli Forces Raid in West Bank Village

Two Palestinian teenagers have lost their lives following a raid conducted by settlers and Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank village of al-Mughayyir on Wednesday. The village has experienced frequent attacks by illegal Israeli settlers and Israeli forces over recent months.

According to the Palestinian Wafa news agency, citing the head of the village council, the victims were identified as Mohammad Na’ssan and Khalil Abu Aliya, both 19 years old. When local residents attempted to confront the settlers, Israeli soldiers opened fire, critically wounding the two young men who later succumbed to their injuries.

Sources from the village informed Al Jazeera that snipers had positioned themselves on rooftops ahead of the killings. Data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicates that 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, with at least 1,870 others wounded.

OCHA reports that settler attacks in al-Mughayyer have primarily targeted the village’s sole access road, where vehicles are frequently intercepted. Additional incidents include an August 20 attack that wounded eleven Palestinians, Israeli forces firing tear gas into a mosque in Madama on Tuesday, and an attempted arson attack by settlers on another mosque in the nearby town of Bazariya hours prior.

The rising wave of settler violence, often backed by Israeli forces, has drawn scrutiny from international allies. Last month, a three-week settler siege of a Palestinian home in Qusra, south of Nablus, elicited a rare rebuke from United States ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. Meanwhile, the European Union is considering a ban on goods produced in settlements. In late August, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process ad interim, Dr Ramiz Alakbarov, noted that these attacks continue with virtually no accountability, while experts like United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese suggest the violence fits the definition of pogroms.