'They fired on a civilian vehicle': Israeli forces kill Palestinian worker near Hebron

Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian worker and wounded two others at the entrance to the town of Bani Naim, north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, on Monday, in the deadliest episode of a weekend of escalating military and settler violence. The Israeli military says the three Palestinians were travelling in a car that accelerated towards a military vehicle and crashed into it, after which soldiers opened fire. Palestinian authorities say Israeli forces opened fire on a civilian vehicle — and do not say whether the driver attempted to hit the soldiers. One of the wounded is reported to be in critical condition. The killing did not happen in isolation. Across the West Bank on Sunday and Monday, settlers and soldiers mounted a coordinated campaign of violence, concentrated on the olive harvest season. Near Khirbet Huwara, east of Yatta, Israeli settlers chased ten Palestinian workers, fired into the air and severely beat several of them, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA. Southwest of Jenin, settlers attacked olive harvesters in the Khirbet Amriha and Al-Makhal areas. The Palestinian Red Crescent said a 42-year-old man suffered a broken leg, another man was injured in his hand, and an elderly man was beaten and pepper-sprayed. Northwest of Ramallah, settlers stole harvested olives and damaged trees in Umm Safa and Al-Mazra'a Al-Gharbiya — the latter attack carried out under Israeli military protection — and struck harvesters in Al-Taybeh, east of Ramallah. The state machinery moved in parallel. Israeli forces demolished a 140-square-metre home sheltering two families in Al-Deirat, east of Yatta, along with a water well, a tent and sheep pens. Troops raided Birzeit University with a military bulldozer, demolished and seized a memorial bearing the names of students killed by Israeli forces, and detained a university security guard. In Nablus district, settlers stole olives from farmland in Beita, attacked farmers in the Bab Al-Jamea area of Burqa and stole a tractor. Six Palestinian families returned to their homes in Tal, southwest of Nablus, after Israeli forces had forced them out for more than two months. On Sunday alone, more than 15 people were wounded and one person killed in attacks by forces and settlers across Palestinian towns and villages, with settlers blocking ambulance crews from reaching the wounded. Violence in the West Bank has increased sharply since October 7, 2023. More than 1,100 Palestinians there have been killed by Israeli settlers or forces since then. The pattern at Bani Naim is the pattern everywhere: a disputed encounter at a checkpoint, live fire, and a Palestinian family left to bury its dead while the military investigates itself.