Palestinian boy injured in hit-and-run amid settler rampage in West Bank

A Palestinian teenager was injured after being run over by Israeli settlers during a predawn incursion into the area around Joseph’s Tomb in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Friday, as separate incidents of settler violence and internal unrest unfolded across the West Bank and Jerusalem.

An Al Jazeera correspondent reported that settlers entered Nablus in the early hours of the morning in an apparent attempt to reach the Joseph’s Tomb shrine, located in an area under Palestinian administrative control.

According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, settlers drove into the eastern part of the city and struck the boy as he was crossing Amman Street, leaving him with fractures to both legs. He was taken to hospital for treatment.

The Israeli army later said it had arrested settlers who "deliberately entered Nablus without authorisation, ran over a Palestinian, and fled".

Anadolu Agency, citing eyewitnesses, reported that two settler vehicles entered the area, one car overturned as the settlers fled on foot.

Settler incursions into the Joseph’s Tomb site are frequent and typically take place under Israeli military protection, despite the shrine being located within a Palestinian-controlled zone.

While Jewish tradition has regarded the site as religious since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in 1967, researchers and historians have disputed the claim, saying the shrine is more likely the tomb of a Muslim cleric named Yusuf Dweikat.

The incident in Nablus came amid a series of reported settler attacks elsewhere in the West Bank. Earlier this week, Israeli settlers were reported to have torched a Palestinian vehicle and sprayed graffiti during an overnight attack on the village of Ein Yabrud, northeast of Ramallah.

Settlers entered the village, set a vehicle on fire, and vandalised property before fleeing, and while Israeli police said they had opened an investigation, no arrests have been made.

Images circulating online showed damage to the vehicle and graffiti left at the scene.

The Ein Yabrud attack is part of a broader pattern of settler violence targeting Palestinian villages, which has intensified since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023.

Palestinian officials and human rights groups have repeatedly accused Israeli authorities of failing to prevent such attacks or hold perpetrators accountable.

Meanwhile, in occupied Jerusalem, clashes erupted on Thursday night between Israeli police and members of the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community, leaving at least 13 police officers injured.

The unrest began in a Haredi neighbourhood after a municipal inspector issued a traffic citation to a young Haredi man, according to Israeli media reports. When police arrived, officers reportedly discovered that several of those present were evading compulsory military service and attempted to transfer them to military police custody.

Hundreds of Haredim then gathered at the scene, with Israeli media reporting that alerts were circulated warning that "the kidnappers have arrived", a reference used by some Haredi groups for police officers enforcing conscription-related arrests.

Clashes escalated as protesters overturned a police vehicle, threw stones and rubbish, and damaged additional police cars.

Israeli police said they deployed large forces, including Border Police units, to restore order, using crowd-control measures such as tear gas and water cannons. Four people were arrested.

After police briefly withdrew, protesters reportedly attacked investigators and a bus carrying Israeli soldiers, prompting police to return and use stun grenades to extract them.

The clashes highlight growing internal tensions in Israel following a 2024 Supreme Court ruling that ended long-standing exemptions for Haredi men from military service and barred state funding for religious institutions whose students refuse to enlist.

Haredim, who make up roughly 13 percent of Israel’s population, argue that compulsory service threatens their religious way of life.