Israeli forces kill Palestinian boy in West Bank as EU condemns E1 plan

Israeli forces have shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank, as the European Union joined growing global concern over Israel’s plans to build a new illegal settlement that would split the territory in two.

Israeli forces shot 14-year-old Islam Ahmed Ajouri in the chest during a raid on the Askar refugee camp in Nablus on Sunday, according to the Wafa news agency.

The killing came as violence by Israeli forces and settlers surges in the occupied West Bank, as Israel gears up for a general election in October.

According to Wafa, Israeli forces also shot a 25-year-old man in the town of Burqa, near Ramallah, wounding him in his foot. He was subsequently arrested. Israeli forces also arrested several Palestinians in raids across the occupied West Bank, including the city of Qalqilya and the Tulkarem, Jenin and Nablus governorates.

Separately, Israeli forces raided and sealed off the village of Al-Awja, north of Jericho, after an Israeli man in his 20s was stabbed and moderately wounded at a nearby commercial complex.

The suspect fled the scene, the Israeli military said.

Israeli raids, attacks

According to Al-Awja village council head Hani Najoum, soldiers trapped residents inside their homes, forced shops to close, searched homes and collected surveillance footage from private residences and businesses.

The Israeli military confirmed launching large-scale raids, setting up roadblocks in and around the village, and increasing police presence, saying it remains “in constant contact” with local residents and security forces.

The Palestinian group Hamas claimed the attack on Al-Awja, saying it was a response to what it called Israeli violations and military operations in the occupied West Bank and Palestinian territories, as well as an escalation of violations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem.

“This operation demonstrates that our people are determined to resist the occupation in every part of Palestine, despite all the campaigns of oppression, persecution and escalating terrorism against our people,” it said in a statement.

Another Israeli raid also took place in al-Mughayyir village, north of Ramallah, with soldiers firing gas bombs and subjecting several Palestinians to field interrogations, according to footage shared online.

Meanwhile, in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, a siege by Israeli settlers on three Palestinian families entered its 15th day.

The three besieged families are facing a water shortage, Wafa reported, with settlers blocking water deliveries and cutting off roads leading to their homes. It said Israeli forces have also converted one of the houses into a military barracks, throwing out and destroying the furniture and belongings of its owners.

The incident comes amid a rise in state-backed Israeli settler violence against Palestinians across the occupied West Bank since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023.

Data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) shows that between January 1, 2025, and June 31, 2026, there were 3,033 Israeli settler attacks. This year, there has been an average of 190 attacks per month, up from 153 per month in 2025, a 24-percent increase in the monthly rate.

E1 settlement project

Separately, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Policy, Kaja Kallas, added her voice to the global condemnation of Israel’s plans for an illegal settlement project in the E1 area.

“Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including the E1 area, are illegal under international law,” she said.

“The position of the EU is clear,” Kallas added, urging Israel to “withdraw the tender” and “suspend plans for the E1 area, as well as all other settlement expansion projects”.

The plan, which was approved by the government last year, aims to build more than 3,400 housing units on roughly 12 square kilometres (4.6 square miles) of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

The settlement would bisect the West Bank from north to south, cutting off the West Bank’s link to East Jerusalem, which for years Palestinians have cited as the preferred capital of their state.

Last week, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada and Norway also called Israel’s opening of construction tenders for more than 1,200 housing units under the E1 settlement project “unacceptable” and in violation of “the territorial contiguity of the Palestinian Territories”.