Teenager Among Three Killed by IDF Amid Settler Attack in the West Bank

An attack on a West Bank town by dozens of Israeli settlers sparked a confrontation that ended with soldiers killing three Palestinians, in the latest lethal incident in the territory, where there has been a surge in settler and IDF violence since the start of the war in Gaza.

- Julian Borger, Sufian Taha, Kafr Malik

The Palestinians had run to the edge of Kafr Malik to form a human screen and rescue women and children trapped in a house set alight by about 100 masked attackers. But as they threw stones at the settlers in an attempt to drive them back, Israeli troops, who had taken up position behind the marauders, opened fire. Two men and a teenage boy were shot dead and several others were taken to hospital.

"Their own kids are really valuable to them but other people's kids are worthless," said Mohammed Sabry, his eyes swollen from tears. His son, Lutfi, 18, was one of the dead.

"There is no justification whatsoever to shed the blood of the Palestinian people like this," he added. "They attack us without provocation and when young people go to defend women and children, they are shot by the army. The bitter truth is the world is watching the bloodshed of the Palestinian people without doing anything about it."

Afi Hamayel's house took the brunt of the attack. "They threw petrol bombs into my car and then through the window in the house," he said.