Israeli settlers kill Palestinian youth near Ramallah amid raids
4 Min Read
Israeli settlers killed Palestinian Jihad Ajaj near Ramallah, as attacks and raids across the occupied West Bank left several wounded and farmlands destroyed.
-
An Israeli armored vehicle moves on a street of a local market during a military raid in the West Bank refugee camp of Balata, Wednesday, October 8, 2025 (AP)
A Palestinian youth, Jihad Ajaj, was martyred and three others were wounded after being shot by Israeli settlers near the village of Deir Jarir, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported that a young man was injured by settler gunfire in the town of Huwara, south of Nablus, while a child was shot and wounded by Israeli occupation forces during a raid on Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus.
In another attack, settlers assaulted a Palestinian near the illegal settlement of Mekhola in the northern Jordan Valley, beating him and spraying him with pepper gas.
Meanwhile, in occupied al-Quds, Red Crescent paramedics treated a Palestinian man who was shot in the thigh with live ammunition in the town of al-Ram before transferring him to the hospital.
Settlers destroy and burn olive groves in al-Khalil
The escalation continued in al-Khalil, where hundreds of settlers stormed the Ibrahimi Mosque under heavy Israeli military protection.
In another wave of assaults, armed settlers attacked Palestinian farmers in Wadi Sa’ir, northeast of al-Khalil, chasing them from their lands and stealing their olive harvest. According to WAFA, settlers cut down over 200 ancient olive trees and more than 100 almond trees, while setting fire to dozens of dunums of farmland planted with grapes, olives, and almonds.
The destruction was reportedly part of ongoing efforts to intimidate Palestinian farmers and force them off their lands to expand nearby colonial settlements.
Widespread incursions across the West Bank
In Tubas, Israeli occupation forces stormed the city with several military vehicles after departing from the Tayasir checkpoint. Dozens of settlers also entered Kifl Haris, northwest of Salfit, under heavy army protection to perform Talmudic rituals at religious sites.
Elsewhere, Israeli forces raided the town of Beit Fajjar, south of Beit Lahm, as part of the occupation’s ongoing campaign of raids and detentions across the West Bank.
According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, since October 7, 2023, Israeli settlers have carried out 7,154 attacks against Palestinians and their property, killing 34 people and forcibly displacing 33 Bedouin communities, comprising 455 families and 2,853 individuals, from their homes.
Raids and detainments across West Bank
Hundreds of Israeli settlers stormed Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in the city of al-Khalil. Concurrently, Israeli occupation forces raided the al-Arroub refugee camp north of the city at dawn, detaining dozens of Palestinians after assaulting them, tying their hands, and blindfolding them.
Field interrogations were conducted inside the al-Arroub Youth Center, which was temporarily converted into a detention site, before the detainees were released. During the operation, live fire was used against worshippers leaving dawn prayers, though no injuries were reported.
Following the raid, Bassam Jaber, Director-General of Education for northern al-Khalil, announced that classes in schools within al-Arroub would be postponed until Thursday to ensure the students' safety.
Elsewhere in al-Khalil, a 24-year-old Palestinian youth was shot near the apartheid wall in Tarqumiya town and taken to the hospital. The IOF also detained Palestinian child Mohammad Ahmed al-Alami and seized a motorcycle during a raid in the Beit Ummar town.
Wider pattern of aggression and land theft
These latest assaults come amid escalating Israeli military operations across the West Bank, where occupation forces have intensified raids, arrests, and closures in recent weeks. According to Reuters, "Israel" has approved new settlement plans to seize 35 dunams of land from the village of Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya, for the construction of 58 new settlement units.
In the town of Rantis, west of Ramallah, Israeli soldiers detained on Tuesday farmers attempting to reach their olive groves and informed them that access to their own land would now require a special "entry permit", a policy that exemplifies the apartheid system imposed by the occupation to isolate Palestinians from their lands and facilitate ongoing "annexation".
