Teenager killed near Hebron as West Bank settlement expansion draws international condemnation

A 17-year-old Palestinian was shot dead near Hebron as Israel reopened the last of four long-closed West Bank settlements, while a wave of settler violence and a new settlement tender provoked strong Western criticism.

Palestinian witnesses said Karim Shalalde was shot in the chest during an attack by Israeli settlers on the road outside the village of Sayyir. The Israeli military said it had responded to reports of Palestinians throwing stones and that a settlement security guard opened fire. His father told reporters: 'They shot him in the chest in cold blood. My son didn't do anything. He was standing in front of the houses and told them to go away. They shot him in his chest and killed him.'

The killing came as settler leader Yossi Dagan and others marked the reopening of Kadeem, near Jenin, the last of four settlements closed by Israel in 2005. Since Benjamin Netanyahu's government took office in 2022, more than 100 new settlements have been approved, compared with six in the preceding decade. All Israeli settlements and settler outposts in the West Bank are illegal under international law, a position Israel rejects.

Violence around the newly reopened settlements has been accompanied by other escalations. In Khusra, south of Nablus, masked settlers laid siege to four Palestinian homes for five days, cutting power, water and access to health care. Israeli soldiers were initially filmed praying alongside the settlers. The military later used bulldozers and tear gas to move the settlers on, but they returned after troops left. Israeli forces then raided the main village and took over around a dozen Palestinian houses, telling the owners to leave. Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, called the settlers' actions Israeli terrorism.

Diplomatic attention has also turned to new settlement construction. Israel published tenders for more than 1,200 housing units in the E1 corridor east of Jerusalem, an area long considered too sensitive for development. The project would cut East Jerusalem off from the West Bank and divide the territory, making a two-state solution almost impossible. The UK, France, Germany, Italy and Canada called the move unacceptable. UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said it was a destructive act and summoned Israel's most senior diplomat in London. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar rejected the demand, calling the British statement patronising and one-sided.

At the same time, there is growing political pressure in Britain over trade with settlements. The legal group Global Echo said after a four-year investigation that one in six shipments of produce into the EU contains settlement products disguised as Israeli goods. Spain has banned such imports. The UK government says it advises businesses not to trade in illegal settlements, but campaigners want a complete embargo.

Earlier reporting also showed the impact of military restrictions. An ambulance carrying a pregnant woman was stopped at a checkpoint near Nablus and held at the roadside. Medics said they were ordered to switch off the engine, cutting oxygen and monitors. The mother survived; the baby did not. The Israeli military denied that soldiers had delayed the ambulance.

The wider context is a sharp rise in settler violence. The United Nations says there have been about six attacks on Palestinian communities every day this year. Few settlers are prosecuted, and illegal outposts receive state support. Israel's prime minister has described the attackers as a small group of extremists. Some settlers justify the violence on religious grounds. At Havat Gilad, a resident and lawyer told reporters that the Bible authorised the land for Jews and that one Jewish life was worth ten million Palestinian lives. Many Israelis reject those views.

As one correspondent put it: 'This conflict has always been about land and Palestinians are losing.'