Two Palestinian teenagers were killed yesterday in an attack by Israeli settlers and army troops in the West Bank, according to local officials and the Palestinian health ministry.
Officials said the victims were aged 16 and 19, while Palestinian news agency WAFA, reported that they died in al-Mughayyir village near Ramallah.
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.
The military said its troops fired on and struck “key instigators” of a “violent disturbance” after people threw stones at the forces. It added that the incident was under investigation.
The attack comes amid a wave of intensified violence by settlers in the West Bank, after a siege of Qusra village by settlers in August drew international condemnation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has overseen an expansion of settlements in the West Bank, territory captured by Israel in the 1967 war.
Israel has established dozens of new settlements and settler outposts in the area.
Rights groups say the increasing settler presence on the edge of Palestinian villages is part of a wider effort by settlers to seize more land from Palestinians, further eating into territory where Palestinians aim to establish a state.