Israeli army reservist kills 2 Palestinians, including a 14-year-old, in the occupied West Bank
AL-MUGHAYYIR, West Bank (AP) — An Israeli army reservist shot and killed two Palestinians near a school east of Ramallah on Tuesday morning, authorities said, in the latest episode of violence convulsing the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that 14-year-old Aws al-Naasan and 32-year-old Jihad Abu Naim were killed in an attack by Israeli settlers and soldiers on the village of al-Mughayyir that left three others wounded.
Kazem Al-Hajj Mohammad, who witnessed the shooting, said that there was a volley of gunfire after settlers and the army arrived. School administrators told parents to come get their children and were met with more gunfire and tear gas. That’s when the two were killed, he said.
He and other mourners carried the two bodies sheathed in Palestinian flags out of the Ramallah Medical Complex, where the dead and wounded were taken after the shooting.
“This is our daily reality,” he said, noting that the role of settlers and the army had become interchangeable amid daily violence, displacement, land grabs and livestock seizures.
Israel’s military said that the gunman was a civilian, an army reservist who wasn't mobilized. The military said that he hadn't been arrested, but that the incident was under investigation. It said that troops had responded to reports of rock-throwing toward an Israeli civilian vehicle.
Al-Mughayyir, a village 9 miles (15 kilometers) northeast of Ramallah, has been an epicenter of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli settlers and soldiers, with Palestinians reporting dozens of attacks in 2025, including lethal shootings, arson and vandalism. The main road leading to al-Mughayyir has been frequently closed by a military gate, and residents say they have gradually lost access to their agricultural lands and olive groves.
Many of the groves were razed during an Israeli army raid last summer, after a Palestinian gunman allegedly opened fire on settlers grazing sheep near the village. Eight settler outposts now encircle al-Mughayyir, including Adei Ad, which was legalized by Israel’s government in December.
Another 14-year-old, Mohammed Naasan, was killed there in January. Hamdi al-Naasan, Aws' father, was killed by settlers in a 2019 clash that drew international condemnation, including by the United Nations.
Al-Naasan and Abu Naim are the latest Palestinians to be killed this year in the occupied West Bank, where 10 people have been killed by Israeli settlers — surpassing the total killed by settlers in 2025. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 240 Palestinians were killed in the territory last year, the vast majority by Israel’s military, while nine deaths were attributed to settlers.
But rights groups caution that the distinction can be blurred. The Israeli advocacy group Yesh Din, which tracks violence in the West Bank, has reported that lethal violence is increasingly being carried out by “settler-soldiers” from reserve battalions, both when they're working and when they're off duty.
“The availability of uniforms and firearms has given a vast number of settlers, some of them with a history of ideologically motivated offenses, the opportunity to engage in illegal acts against Palestinians, using military equipment, whether by abusing their powers while on duty or off duty altogether,” it said in a February report titled “Settlers in Uniform.”
Yesh Din noted an active duty reservist wearing civilian clothes opened fire in the village of Deir Jarir — also northeast of Ramallah — in December. Israel's military also opened an investigation into a reservist who shot and killed a Palestinian in the same village on April 11.
Also on Tuesday, Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, hospital authorities said, including four suspected militants who were killed when a drone strike hit a Hamas-controlled security point just after midnight in Khan Younis.
Nasser Hospital, which received the casualties, said another man was wounded in the strike in Amal, a Khan Younis neighborhood around 4 kilometers (2.4 miles) west of the so-called Yellow Line, separating the Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of Gaza, according to relatives of those killed.
Israel's military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Relatives said the militant-manned checkpoint was being used to police the area and protect people and their properties.
“They were protecting people and their properties,” said Ahmed Musa Abu Helal, a relative of the two casualties. “This is a cold-blooded killing that didn’t respect the truce."
In the northern town of Beit Lahiya, a 30-year-old woman was killed when Israel's navy opened fire toward tents sheltering displaced people early Tuesday, Shifa Hospital said.
Israel's military said it wasn’t aware of attacks in Beit Lahiya.
The deaths were the latest among Palestinians in the coastal enclave since a fragile ceasefire deal in October attempted to halt the more than two-year-long war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
While the heaviest fighting has subsided, the shaky ceasefire has seen almost daily Israeli fire. Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones, killing more than 780 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
The health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. But it does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.
Militants have carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to that and other violations. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.
——— Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank and Magdy from Cairo.
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