Israel finds body of teenager whose disappearance sparked deadly settler attack in West Bank

AL-MUGHAYYIR, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli military said Saturday that the body of a missing Israeli teenager was found in the West Bank after he was killed in a “terrorist attack,” as violence escalated. intensified in the territory occupied by Israel where tensions increased. simmered for months.

The disappearance of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair sparked a large-scale attack by Israeli settlers on a Palestinian village on Friday and Saturday. One Palestinian was killed and 25 others injured in an attack on the village of Mughayyir on Friday, Palestinian health officials said. Israeli troops delayed the ambulance carrying the 26-year-old’s body for several hours on Saturday, witnesses said.

Dozens of settlers returned to the outskirts of the village on Saturday, burning two houses and several cars. The Palestinian Health Ministry said three residents of the village were injured, one seriously.

In the nearby village of Douma, Israeli settlers burned several houses, according to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency. The Palestinian Red Crescent said six people were shot and wounded, but did not say who fired the shots.

Tensions in the West Bank have been particularly high since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the neighboring Gaza Strip on October 7. Israel declared war on Hamas after militants killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 250 hostages. Since then, more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to Gaza health officials.

Since the start of the war, Hamas has tried to ignite other fronts, particularly in the West Bank, in the hope of exerting more pressure on Israel. Such efforts have largely failed, although more than 460 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since October 7, most in clashes sparked by army raids, but some by vigilante settlers.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing of the Israeli teenager.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the killing: “We will attack the murderers and their accomplices as we do anyone who harms the citizens of the State of Israel,” he said in a statement released by his office.

In 2014, the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank escalated tensions and ultimately sparked a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, at the time the deadliest round of fighting between the two sides .