Illegal Israeli settlers shoot ambulance driver dead in northern West Bank

By Awad Rjoub

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - A Palestinian ambulance driver was killed Saturday by illegal Israeli settlers in a village in the northern West Bank.

“A Palestinian ambulance driver was killed, and two others were injured, by settlers' gunfire during an attack on the village of As-Sawiya, southern Nablus,” Palestine News Agency, WAFA, reported.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said ambulance crews transported “a critically injured 48-year-old man with gunshot wounds to the chest during clashes in the town of As-Sawiya, and his death was announced at a medical center.”

It later noted that “the young man announced dead was an ambulance driver,” without specifying if he was killed by settlers or the Israeli army.

“Ambulance driver (Mohammad Mousa) was killed by occupation gunfire near the village of As-Sawiya while he was heading to transport injuries from the village due to settler attacks,” according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

In a video circulating on social media, one of the paramedics said ambulance teams headed to As-Sawiya after receiving reports of injuries from settler gunfire, “and after loading the wounded, gunfire was directly opened at the paramedic and the ambulance.”

Earlier Saturday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that it had transported “two gunshot injuries during clashes in As-Sawiya.”

It added that one of the injuries, a 50-year-old, was from gunshot wounds to the chest, and the other was a 26-year-old young man, with gunshot wounds to the face.

WAFA also reported that “dozens of settlers from the Elon Moreh settlement, established on the lands of citizens southern Nablus, attacked the homes of citizens in the eastern area of the village of As-Sawiya, resulting in the two injuries.”

According to statistics from the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, settlers carried out 546 attacks against Palestinians and their properties in the West Bank during the first quarter of 2024, including attacks on 156 vehicles by smashing or burning.

The left-wing Israeli Peace Now movement confirms the existence of 451,000 settlers in 132 settlements and 147 settlement outposts in the West Bank, not including 230,000 settlers in East Jerusalem.

Parallel to the ongoing onslaught in Gaza since Oct. 7, the Israeli army escalated operations in the West Bank, leading to the killing of 469 Palestinians, injuries to nearly 4,800 and arrests of 8,340, according to Palestinian sources

Flouting the International Court of Justice’s provisional ruling, Israel continues its onslaught on the Gaza Strip where at least 34,049 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 76,901 injured since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala