Israeli settlers kill at least 1 Palestinian while storming West Bank village (2024)

Hundreds of armed Israeli settlers stormed a village in the occupied West Bank on Friday, setting fire to several homes and cars in one of the largest attacks by settlers this year, according to Palestinian officials.

At least one Palestinian man was killed when shots were fired by Israeli settlers in the village of Al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah, according to the head of the village council Amin Abu-Alia. He said he identified the killed Palestinian as his 26-year-old relative named Jihad Abu-Alia, who was meant to get married this summer.

At least 25 others were injured in the rampage, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, the scale of which has not been seen since hundreds of settlers stormed through the villages ofTurmusayyaandHuwarain two separate incidents last year.

Between 1,000 and 1,200 settlers surrounded the village, and around 500 stormed it just after midday local time on Friday, blocking all the roads in the area, Abu-Alia told CNN.

He added that Israeli security forces informed Palestinian officials that the settlers were looking for a 14-year-old Israeli boy who had gone missing earlier in the day.

They attacked the village, raided homes and fired gunshots at residents, Abu-Alia said. Videos obtained by CNN show parts of the village burning, with smoke billowing over several buildings and settlers lobbing rocks. Houses and cars are seen completely burnt up, with sounds of gunfire and clashes heard in the background.

According to Abu-Alia, the Israeli military arrived at the scene at around 3 p.m. and didn’t stop the settlers from attacking the village. Israeli soldiers allowed them to raid homes, prevented Palestinian residents from moving around and blocked ambulances from reaching the injured, he added.

Abu-Alia told CNN settlers stole approximately 70 sheep from the Palestinian village.

In response to a question by CNN, the IDF said “violent riots were instigated in multiple locations in the area” following the search for the boy.

Israeli warplanes carried out several airstrikes on Friday, targeting "military buildings" used by Hezbollah fighters in parts of southern Lebanon, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The areas include the Aita al-Shaab and the Taybeh in southern Lebanon, said Avichay Adraee, IDF spokesperson for Arab media,in a post on X.

The Israeli airstrikes were before the 40 rockets that were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel Friday evening and claimed by Hezbollah.

US President Joe Biden expects an attack from Iran will happen “sooner than later," he told reporters at the White House Friday.

Asked what his message to Tehran is right now, the president said “Don’t.”

In response to more shouted questions from reporters asking if American troops were at risk, Biden returned to the podium and said that the United States is "devoted” to the defense of Israel.

“We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” Biden said.

Remember: The United States says it is on high alert for a significant Iranian retaliatory attack following Israel's deadly strike on Tehran's consulate in Damascus last week, raising fears of a wider regional war. There remains a “real,” “credible” and “viable” threat of Iran launching strikes, the White House said earlier Friday,following Israel’s attack ona diplomatic compound in Syria that killed three Iranian generals.

Around 40 rockets were fired from Lebanon on Friday evening, according to the Israeli military.Some were intercepted and the rest fell in open areas, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

The IDF said there were no injuries.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militants confirmed the rocket barrage, saying that they fired "dozens of Katyusharockets" at Israeli artillery positions.

Hezbollah said it was in support of Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in response to Israeli attacks on civilian homes in southern Lebanon.

Israeli air defenses also intercepted two explosive drones, which the IDF said were deployed by Hezbollah.

The IDF said it had struck several locations in Lebanon to “remove threats.”

The post has been updated with more details on Israel's response to the rocket attack.

The US is sanctioningfour leaders of Hamas’ cyber and drone operations based in Gaza and Lebanon, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller announced on Friday.

“Operatives of terrorist group Hamas have used information warfare and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to facilitate terrorist violence across multiple fronts,” Miller said.

Those sanctioned include:

The al-Shimali unit manages the development and production of automatic 120mm mortars, mobile launchers for Grad rockets, development and production of flight simulators, UAVs for intelligence gathering and suicide UAVs, according to the Treasury Department.

“The United States will continue to target Hamas’s destabilizing attempts to launch terrorist attacks, as well as to disrupt Hamas terrorists wherever they operate, including across cyberspace,” Miller said.

Hamas and Hezbollah have developed moderately effective cyber capabilities in recent years, according to private experts who track them. Hamas has used those capabilities in espionage campaigns aimed at Israel and Arab governments for years, researchers have found. In an interview with CNN in November, Israel’s cyber defense chief alleged that Hezbollah-backed hackers had breached private security cameras in Israel to try to track the movements of Israeli soldiers.

Israeli forces surrounded and attacked the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Friday, wounding several journalists and at least one other person.

Turkish state broadcaster TRT accused Israeli tanks of launching a “targeted attack” on the journalists, including TRT Arabi cameraman Sami Shehada, who lost a leg, and correspondent Sami Barhoum, who suffered minor injuries. CNN stringer Mohammad Al-Sawalhi was also among those hurt.

The TRT statement called the assault "a deliberate attack against media professionals, marked clearly with 'PRESS' on their jackets" and said it was "part of a broader pattern of violence" against journalists in Gaza. As of Friday, at least 95 media workers have been killed covering the war, according to preliminary figures from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

CNN video shows Shehada's right leg was severed.

“We were filming in a safe place, I was wearing my flak jacket and my helmet — even the car I was in had a 'PRESS' and 'TV' sign marked on it. It was clear that I was a civilian and a journalist. We were targeted,” he told CNN from his operating bed.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the attack and allegations that journalists were targeted at the camp.

Video from the scene: Footage filmed by Al-Sawalhi shows people — including children, women and the elderly — taking cover in shops and running away in panic as repeated artillery fire and gunshots can be heard in the near distance.

CNN spoke to an elderly man named Saleh, who said he was trying to flee the area after Israeli tanks surrounded the camp and that he'd been hit by shrapnel.

Moments later, Saleh could be seen crossing the street when intense artillery fire struck the road a few meters from where Al-Sawalhi was filming. The journalist was hit by shrapnel, slightly injuring his right hand.

Graphic footage of the aftermath shows the elderly man severely wounded, with a bloody head injury. Saleh, Al-Sawalhi, and a number of other journalists were taken to Al-Awda Hospital for treatment, CNN footage shows.

Recent attacks: Nuseirat camp, located north of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, has been the target of several Israeli airstrikes in recent days, including one that killed 14 people Tuesday, according to the spokesperson for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and US Central Command Commander Gen. ErikKurilla on Friday discussed preparations for a potential Iranian attack on Israel.

Gallant and Kurilla spoke about “readiness for an Iranian attack against the State of Israel, which may lead to regional escalation,” according to a statement from Gallant’s office.

Following the meeting, Gallant called Kurilla “a true friend of Israel” and thanked him for US support for Israel.

“Our enemies think that they can pull apart Israel and the United States, but the opposite is true — they are bringing us together and strengthening our ties. We stand shoulder-to-shoulder,” Gallant added.

The defense minister said Israel was “prepared to defend ourselves on the ground and in the air” and would respond “in close cooperation with our partners.”

The two met at the Israeli Hatzor Air Base near Ashdod in Israel's Southern District.

The US Defense Department is moving additional assets to the Middle East region, a defense official told CNN, as Israel and the US brace for a potential Iranian attack on Israeli facilities in the country and the broader region.

The move is "to bolster regional deterrence efforts and increase force protection for U.S. forces," according to the official.

The Pentagon has been working specifically to reinforce air defenses for the US troops stationed in Iraq and Syria, who came under attack by Iran-backed proxy forces over 100 times between October and February. In January, three US service members were killed when a drone got through US air defenses at the Tower 22 base in Jordan.

The US is not anticipating that Iran or its proxies will attack US forces as part of its retaliation, but are moving the assets just in case.

The European Council has adopted sanctions against three Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad entities, in light of "their responsibilities in the brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attacks" that occurred across Israel on October 7.

The listed entities are:

They are now subject to an asset freeze and a travel ban to the European Union, the EU Council said Friday in anews release, adding, "the provision of funds to them, directly or indirectly, is now also prohibited."

Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz welcomed the decision. It "sends a clear message: those who murder, rape, burn, abuse the bodies of babies, girls, women, and men, and commit atrocities against humanity - will pay the price," Katz said in aposton X.

Some context: In March, a United Nations teamfound“clear and convincing” information that hostages in Gaza were sexually abused, and there are “reasonable grounds” to believe the sexual violence is ongoing.

CNN's Richard Roth contributed previous reporting to this post.