Violence in the West Bank has escalated shortly before the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, with a Palestinian and an Israeli killed in separate incidences, according to Israeli authorities.
Israeli forces on Sunday said soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man who had tried to ram them with a car in the Ganim area in the northern West Bank.
In a separate incident, an Israeli was killed in the settlement area of Neveh Tzuf.
The gunman fired from a car at Israeli settlers before fleeing, according to Israeli officials.
A soldier who was near the scene fired at the gunman, wounding him, the Israel Defence Forces said.
The injured man fled to a hospital where Israel's police and military apprehended him, the military said on its Telegram channel.
The Samaria regional council said the killed man, Netanel Shakron, was a settler who had been bathing at a spring ahead of Yom Kippur.
It was the second time an Israeli civilian had been killed in a confrontation with a Palestinian this year in the West Bank, according to the United Nations.
Meanwhile the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that two Palestinians were wounded in a settler attack in the West Bank.
One man was injured in the head by a stone and another suffered a stab wound to the leg.
The situation in the occupied West Bank has deteriorated since the Hamas-led massacre of October 7, 2023 in Israel and the subsequent Gaza Strip war.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, more than 1100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since then in Israeli military operations, armed clashes and attacks.
At the same time, violence by radical Israeli settlers against Palestinians has increased significantly.
The Israeli military has been accused of not acting decisively enough against such attacks or even of co-operating with the settlers.
Warnings of a new Palestinian uprising as a result of settler violence are growing louder.
This year alone, more than 80 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to the health ministry, around a quarter of them by settlers.
Yom Kippur begins on Sunday evening.
Tensions in the West Bank frequently rise further around Jewish holidays.
with AP
