Published: 31 October 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Video shows at least four settlers dressed in white; shooting occurs amid rising tensions in the West Bank following October 7 massacre.
A Palestinian man was shot and killed by an Israeli settler in the West Bank on Saturday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and Israeli military sources, as violence continued to soar in the area three weeks after the Hamas attacks that killed over 1,400 Israelis.
Witnesses to the shooting in Al-Sawiya, a town near Nablus and the Israeli settlement of Eli, said the man was shot in the chest while harvesting olives along with other Palestinians. He was identified as 40-year-old Bilal Saleh.
An Israeli security source said that while olive harvesting near settlements is generally forbidden, the Palestinians had been in an area that doesn't require prior coordination with authorities.
A number of olive groves were apparently attacked in the area.
In a video circulating on social media, which does not show how the incident began, it appears that there is a group of at least four settlers dressed in white. At one point, what sounds like a gunshot can be heard.
Meanwhile, Defence minister Yoav Gallant has signed an order placing a prominent spokesman for radical Israeli settlers in detention for four months, without putting him before a judge.
READ MORE
Israeli Settler Kills Palestinian Harvesting Olives in West Bank as Violence Rises Amid Gaza War (Haaretz)
Confrontations in the West Bank between settlers and Palestinians have risen since the Hamas attacks of October 7, with a security source saying such incidents harm Israel's legitimacy
Palestinian shot dead by settler while harvesting olives in West Bank — report (Times of Israel)
Bilal Muhammed Saleh, 40, was allegedly part of a group working outside their village near Nablus when they were attacked
