Killing comes amid record Israeli violence and settlement expansion across the occupied West Bank.
A Palestinian man has died from gunshot wounds after Israeli forces opened fire on his vehicle in Hebron, amid escalating violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza shows no signs of abating.
Shaker Falah al-Jaabari, 58, succumbed to his injuries on Sunday morning after being shot the previous night in eastern Hebron, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
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The Israeli army said forces opened fire at a vehicle that accelerated towards soldiers in the Haret al-Sheikh neighbourhood; however, in a later statement, the military acknowledged that an initial review found no evidence that the incident was an intentional attack.
Israeli authorities seized his body following the shooting, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported. The Palestine Red Crescent Society told media that its crew was prevented from reaching the man.
The killing came as Israeli forces besieged a house in the Old City of Nablus on Sunday, with undercover units infiltrating neighbourhoods before military vehicles stormed the city from multiple directions.
Two Palestinians were arrested as troops deployed across several areas and live gunfire echoed through the eastern market, according to Palestinian security sources cited by Wafa.
In a separate incident, Israeli forces raided a Palestinian wedding in occupied East Jerusalem, firing live ammunition and stun grenades at attendees.
Several men were arrested, including the groom, with footage showing soldiers inside the hall and security forces throwing stun grenades as guests were forced outside.
The escalation follows stark findings from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which documented that 240 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank in 2025, including 55 children.
The year also saw more than 1,800 settler attacks, the highest since the United Nations began recording such incidents in 2006, with five attacks occurring each day on average.
More than 1,190 Palestinians were injured in these attacks, with 838 wounded directly by Israeli settlers, an average of two Palestinians injured daily by settlers alone.
The violence coincides with a landmark UN human rights report released on Wednesday, labelling Israeli policies as resembling “apartheid”, the first time a UN rights chief has used the term.
Volker Turk called for Israel to “dismantle all settlements”, describing a “systematic asphyxiation of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank”.
Hours after the report’s publication, Israel cleared the final hurdle to begin constructing the controversial E1 settlement project near Jerusalem.
A government tender published on Tuesday seeks developers for 3,401 housing units on land that critics say would effectively bisect the West Bank and prevent the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state.
Initial construction could begin within weeks, according to the anti-settlement group Peace Now.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who oversees settlement policy, declared in August that “the Palestinian state is being erased from the table not with slogans but with actions,” adding that “every settlement, every neighbourhood, every housing unit is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea”.
Settlement expansion drives mass displacement
media correspondent Nida Ibrahim, reporting from a Bedouin camp in Ras al-Auja being dismantled under Israeli orders, described it as “one of the largest shepherding communities in the West Bank”.
She noted that 26 families had already left, with 20 more preparing to depart.
“The other location is completely unknown; they still don’t know where they’re going to go,” Ibrahim said, adding that Israeli settlers were “coming in and intimidating people” as filming took place.
More than half a million Israeli settlers now live in West Bank settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,100 Palestinians in the West Bank and arrested some 21,000 during the period.
