Israeli Settlers Arrested Over Suspected Killing of 19-year-old Palestinian

Two Israeli settlers were arrested in relation to the killing of a 19-year-old Palestinian on Saturday, after clashes broke out between armed settlers and residents of the central West Bank village of Burqa on Friday night.

The Palestinian was identified as Qosai Jammal Mi’tan by the Palestinian Health Ministry, who said he was shot by the settlers. Four other Burqa residents were wounded in the clashes.

The army, police and other security forces are investigating the incident and released five suspects who were previously detained on suspicion of involvement.

A security official said that the two settlers who were arrested are far-right activists from the Ramat Migron outpost. According to the official, one worked as a spokesperson for a lawmaker in Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzmah Yehudit party, and was considered a central target of the Shin Bet security service. Police said he is suspected of obstructing the investigation and possessing a weapon without a license.

The other, who is suspected of shooting Mi’tan, is currently hospitalized in serious condition at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, after sustaining a head injury during the incident.

Residents of Burqa told Haaretz that the incident began around 6:30 P.M., when settlers arrived at the western part of the village with around 40 sheep, and started vandalizing property.

The settlers were armed, according to Burqa resident Ahmed Barakat, and they first began throwing stones before firing at the villagers. According to Barakat, the incident lasted around three hours, until Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene.

According to the Israeli military, a preliminary investigation shows that the settlers arrived near Burqa in the evening to herd their sheep. At this point, Palestinians from the village came out to chase the settlers away, which is when the clashes, including the stone throwing, began. During these confrontations, some of the settlers opened fire; in addition to Mi’tan, four other Palestinians were wounded.

Some of the settlers were wounded by the stone throwing, the IDF’s statement said, and a Palestinian vehicle was set ablaze. Following the clashes, the site was declared a closed military zone.

The Israel Police, who are investigating the incident alongside the Shin Bet, said that they are having difficulty carrying out their duties, as the Palestinian authorities will not cooperate with it, and Mi’tan’s body has not been transferred to them for examination. At the same time, they said that there were witnesses to the shooting.

The police also said that one of the settlers they arrested, the one who is not hospitalized, guided the detectives to the weapon used in the killing, after he is suspected to have hidden it.

Israeli security officials fear the incident will further exacerbate security tensions in the West Bank.

The local mayor, Ibrahim Ma’tan, told Haaretz that settler attacks are not unusual. According to him, the residents’ reaction was natural in light of the settlers’ aggression. “The youths and residents went out to defend their land with their bodies, but the settlers were armed and opened fire, it’s murder and aggression.”

Opposition leader Yair Lapid released a statement saying that the “Hilltop youth are turning the West Bank into a battleground between the terror of Jewish terrorists and the terror of Arab terrorists. This endangers settlements, most of which are law-abiding civilians, endangers our soldiers, and harming innocent people is contrary to Jewish and democratic values.”

The U.K. Embassy in Israel called “for accountability and justice for those involved,” saying it was appalled by the settler attacks, in a Twitter post.

“The backing they receive from within the most extremist coalition in the history of the country is a political attack,” he added.

Buildings in the Oz Zion outpost, from which a defense official said the settlers arrived to Burqa, are built on private Palestinian land. Recently, the Israeli Civil Administration requested that these buildings be removed. Their request was refused by the Defense Ministry’s settlement administration, which is under the control of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also minister in the Defense Ministry.

Early Friday, an 18-year-old Palestinian militant was shot dead in an exchange of gunfire with IDF soldiers in the West Bank city of Tul Karm. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the military arm of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, said one of its members, Muhammad Abu Sa’an, was killed. The Israeli military said that soldiers identified suspects who had opened fire and threw explosives and stones at them, and responded with gunfire.