A 17-year-old Palestinian, identified as Karim Sanad Raja Shalaldeh, was shot and killed by Israeli settlers in the village of Sa'ir, north of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank on Friday. An elderly man, aged 70, was also wounded in the attack. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the violence erupted after Palestinians allegedly threw rocks at Israeli civilians in the area. The Israeli military said soldiers were dispatched to the scene after settlers — who were present, in its words, "without advanced authorisation" — were targeted with stones, and that a security official opened fire. Shalaldeh's father, speaking at the hospital, confirmed that settlers had killed his son. In a separate incident the same day, 58-year-old Fathi Khazem was fatally shot by Israeli forces during a military raid in Jenin, a city in the northern West Bank, with the army alleging he attempted to stab a soldier.

The killings come as newly published data underscores a dramatic escalation in settler violence. The first eight months of 2026 have already recorded the highest annual death toll from settler attacks since tracking began in 2019, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, a Palestinian Authority body. At least 25 Palestinians have been killed in settler attacks during this period alone — a figure roughly 79% higher than the total for all of 2025. Palestinian officials put the broader toll, including deaths in Israeli military operations, at 87 Palestinians killed in nearly 1,500 settler and army incidents this year; three Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in the same period.

A report by Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organisation, reveals a significant shift in where this violence is occurring. Under the 1993–95 Oslo Accords, the West Bank was divided into three administrative zones: Area A, covering major Palestinian cities and comprising roughly 18% of the territory, under Palestinian Authority civil and security control; Area B, about 22%, under Palestinian civil governance with shared security; and Area C, the remaining 60%, under full Israeli military and civil administration, where all internationally recognised-as-illegal Israeli settlements are located. Yesh Din's data shows that almost two-thirds of settler violence in 2026 has taken place in Areas A and B — a sharp reversal from previous years, when Area C accounted for the majority of incidents. Settler leaders have openly described the establishment of new farming outposts in these zones as a strategy to gain footholds in "very strategic" Palestinian locations, framing it as a "great settlement revolution."

International concern is mounting. The United Nations has called for Palestinians to be protected and for perpetrators to be held accountable. The UN's humanitarian coordination office estimated approximately 190 attacks per month in early 2026, a pace that would exceed 2,000 incidents by year's end. France this week announced sanctions against Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — who has publicly called for cancelling the Oslo Accords — with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot describing the situation in the West Bank as "utterly disgraceful." The United States and several European governments have similarly imposed sanctions on settlers and pro-settler figures. Yesh Din concluded that the pattern of violence, backed by state institutions, reflects a deliberate policy aimed at emptying Palestinian areas of their inhabitants — what the organisation described as a "path to ethnic cleansing."