West Bank Violence

Israeli airstrikes killed at least three people in central Gaza on Sunday, including a four-year-old boy, as violence continues across the territory despite a ceasefire in place since October.

The first strike hit the town of Zawaida minutes after the military issued an evacuation order for the area, targeting what it described as a militant. A second strike followed near the Nuseirat refugee camp. Casualties were taken to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Seven others were wounded in the bombardments.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces shot dead a 14-year-old boy during a raid on the Askar refugee camp near Nablus. Separately, the military said it killed a man near Ramallah who attempted to seize a soldier's weapon. A 24-year-old Israeli was stabbed near Jericho by a suspected Palestinian assailant who remains at large, and a 16-year-old settler was arrested after allegedly beating a disabled Palestinian man with a pipe. Since the truce began, Gaza's health ministry says Israeli operations have killed at least 1,286 Palestinians.

A 14-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by Israeli gunfire during a military raid in the West Bank on Saturday, bringing the death toll from escalating violence in the territory to 87 since the start of the year.

Islam Ahmad Ajjouri was shot in the chest in Askar al-Jadid refugee camp east of Nablus and later died at the city's national hospital. The Israel Defense Forces said it was conducting an operation to find the attacker of an Israeli civilian wounded in al-Auja. The military has not commented further on the boy's death.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli forces closed the western entrance to Mughayyir village, its only remaining access point, while 11 Palestinians suffered inhalation injuries during raids on Tubas and Tayasir. Three Palestinians were also shot near the separation barrier in al-Ram. Senior Israeli security officials have warned political leaders that the West Bank is on the brink of explosion.

Eight Muslim-majority countries have condemned Israel's E1 settlement policies in a joint statement, calling the plan a "dangerous escalation," after Israel opened tenders for roughly 1,200 homes in the contested corridor. The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, and Indonesia voiced explicit opposition to the E1 project, which envisions thousands of homes between East Jerusalem and Maale Adumim.

Western pressure also intensified, with a seven-nation group including Britain, France, Germany, and Canada urging companies to shun E1 construction contracts. Britain summoned Israel's chargé d'affaires, and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband demanded the project be halted — a move Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said he "entirely" rejected. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen called the tender unacceptable, while Belgium's Maxime Prevot echoed the condemnation.

Meanwhile, Israel has lifted restrictions on settler residency near Jenin, where the Kadim settlement was evacuated in 2005. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said 30 families returning to Kadim completed a "corrective process." Since late 2022, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has approved more than 100 new West Bank settlements.

Israeli soldiers killed 58-year-old Fathi Khazem during a pre-dawn raid on his home in Jenin on Friday, withholding his body after denying an ambulance access, according to Palestinian civil affairs authorities. An eyewitness said troops stormed the house around 2:30 a.m. while Khazem was with his 10-year-old son. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said crews treated a 14-year-old boy shot in the chest and back with live ammunition during the same operation.

Separately, Israeli settlers fatally shot 17-year-old Karim Sanad Shalaldeh in Hebron, and a 70-year-old man was wounded during a settler attack in Khirbet Hamroush. In Qusra, settlers continue to besiege three Palestinian homes for a 13th consecutive day under military protection.

The killings follow settler violence and raids across the West Bank earlier this week. A Human Rights Watch report found state-backed settler violence has displaced 107 Palestinian communities since January 2023, while seven Western nations condemned Israel's tender for over 1,200 settlement housing units as "unacceptable."

Thirty Israeli settler families arrived in the northern West Bank settlement of Kadim on Thursday, re-establishing a community dismantled two decades ago under the 2005 Disengagement Plan. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attended the opening ceremony and announced plans to establish 19 new settlements across the northern West Bank.

Kadim was one of four settlements evacuated under then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's withdrawal, alongside Homesh, Sa-Nur, and Ganim. The Israeli parliament amended the 2005 disengagement law in early 2023, paving the way for settlers to return. The settlement of Emek Dotan was formally opened last Sunday, and Ganim was reopened last week.

The government has approved more than 100 new West Bank settlements since late 2022, while two new military bases and an outpost on seized Palestinian land are under construction near Jenin. Israeli elections are scheduled for October.