Israeli settlers kill two Palestinians in West Bank attack

Israeli settlers killed two brothers in an attack on the occupied West Bank village of Qaryut on Monday that also left three people injured, the Ramallah-based health ministry and Palestinian Red Crescent said.

"Two citizens from Qaryut, south of Nablus, were killed by settler gunfire," the health ministry said in a statement, identifying the two as Mohammed and Faheem Muammar.

A source at the health ministry confirmed to AFP that the two men, shot in the head and pelvis respectively, were brothers.

The Palestinian Red Crescent, whose teams responded to the incident, reported at least three other people injured, all by gunfire.

One of the injured was a 15-year-old child shot in the shoulder.

Israel's military told AFP it was "looking into" the reports.

An AFP journalist at the nearby Rafidia hospital in the Palestinian city of Nablus reported seeing the bodies of the two dead men, as well as five people brought in with injuries from the incident.

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has soared since the outbreak of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023. It has continued despite the ceasefire.

Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 1,040 Palestinians, many of them militants, but also scores of civilians, in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures.