RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM, Feb 19 (Reuters) – A 19-year-old Palestinian-American citizen shot by an Israeli settler in the West Bank has died from his wounds,
the Palestinian Health Ministry said late on Wednesday.
A U.S. embassy official condemned the violence, telling Reuters on Thursday: “The U.S. Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizen overseas.”
Nasrallah Mohammed Jamal Abu Siam was shot on Wednesday in the village of Mukhmas near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
A relative of Abu Siam, who did not wish to give his name out of fear of reprisals from Israeli security forces, said that settlers had raided the village to steal sheep.
The relative said that when villagers, including Abu Siam, had tried to prevent the theft, the settlers had begun firing at them, wounding Abu Siam and others.
The attacks injured five people, three of whom suffered bullet wounds including Abu Siam, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency WAFA said. The agency did not give details on the other injuries.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the incident.
Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank has increased sharply since the beginning of the war in Gaza in October 2023, with nearly 700 displaced due to settler attacks in 2026 according to UN data.
Nine Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in 2026 according to UN data, while 240 were killed in 2025. Two Israelis were killed in the West Bank during 2025, according to the data.
Israeli indictments of settler violence are rare. At the end of 2025, Israeli monitoring group Yesh Din said of the hundreds of cases of settler violence it had documented since October 7, 2023, only 2% resulted in indictments.
Several U.S. citizens, including the activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers over the past two years in the West Bank.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta and Pesha Magid; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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