Yesterday afternoon, a Palestinian was killed and another wounded in a settler attack on residents of Yassouf village, east of Salfit in the West Bank, carried out under the protection of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). The attack comes amid a sharp escalation in settler violence against Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest season. It is part of a broader pattern in which settlers operate as an advanced arm of the Israeli occupation in a systematic and ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed at eroding and ultimately eliminating the Palestinian presence in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem.
According to information collected by field researchers from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and testimony provided by Jom’ah ‘Abdel Fattah, Head of the Yassouf Village Council, at around 13:00 on Thursday, 1 October 2026, a large number of Israeli settlers, some of them armed with M16 rifles, attacked Palestinians in the al-Nasbah area, east of Yassouf village, around 50 meters from the settlement outpost of “Havat Anton”, established in the al-Nasbah area on 28 July 2026. The settlers arrived on agricultural tractors and on foot and attacked villagers’ homes with stones, prompting dozens of families to gather in the area to prevent the attacks from continuing. The villagers confronted the settlers with stones, including one of the owner of the houses and his nephew, who were defending their home. Suddenly, one of the settlers opened fire, wounding Mashhour Shaher Mohammed Theeb (51) in the left thigh, and his nephew, Shaher ‘Abdeen Mohammed Theeb (25) with shrapnel wounds to the back.
The injured men were taken in civilian cars to Yasser ‘Arafat Hospital in Salfit, where doctors in the emergency department pronounced Mashhour Shaher Mohammed Theeb (51) dead after a gunshot wound to his left thigh severed the main artery. His nephew, Shaher ‘Abdeen Mohammed Theeb (25) sustained a bullet shrapnel wound to the back.
Later, Israeli military vehicles carrying IOF arrived in the area and fired tear gas canisters, stun grenades and live ammunition to disperse the residents, protect the settlers, and facilitate their safe withdrawal to the settlement outpost.
This attack comes amid daily attacks by settler militias across villages and towns in the West Bank, which have intensified in recent days, particularly targeting Palestinian farmers and looting their olive harvests with the beginning of the olive harvest season.
With the killing of Mashhour Theeb, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank since the beginning of the year has risen to 19, including three children. Meanwhile, the number of Palestinians killed by the IOF and Israeli settlers in the West Bank since the beginning of the year has risen to 97, including 22 children and two women.
PCHR calls upon the international community to provide international protection to the Palestinian population, particularly in areas subjected to settler attacks and in communities at risk of displacement. PCHR also calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to fulfil their obligations to ensure respect for international humanitarian law and to hold those responsible for grave violations accountable.
PCHR recalls the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in July 2024, which affirmed the illegality of Israel’s continued presence in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and found that Israel is under an obligation to bring its unlawful presence to an end, evacuate settlers and dismantle the settlements.
