Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank on Thursday after they allegedly attempted to extinguish fires on Palestinian farmland started by Israeli settlers, according to local reports. The incident occurred near the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus.

Palestinian officials told the Wafa news agency that Israeli forces opened fire, wounding four Palestinians. It remains unclear whether settlers or soldiers fired the fatal shots. Two of the wounded later died from their injuries, and Israel has withheld their bodies.

Beit Furik mayor Yousef Hanani said residents tried to extinguish flames in surrounding agricultural fields when they were attacked by Israeli soldiers and settlers. The Israeli regime claimed that a group of Palestinians set fire to the farmland and attacked settlers from the Derech Avraham outpost near the illegal Elon Moreh settlement. An Israeli man was reportedly stabbed and airlifted to hospital.

Local security and political sources insisted that the Palestinians were attempting to put out fires started by settlers when they were attacked. Hanani said Israeli forces sealed all entrances to Beit Furik and deployed a large number of soldiers and settlers, trapping dozens of Palestinians in the town. Forces also forced one family to evacuate their home and torched two Palestinian vehicles.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported treating two men, aged 40 and 43, for gunshot wounds to the abdomen. It did not confirm if these were the two who died. Later Thursday evening, a third Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli forces near the illegal settlement of Ganim. The Israeli military claimed the man stabbed a soldier in the leg before being shot.

Violence in the occupied West Bank has escalated since Israel began its genocidal war on Gaza, with frequent Israeli military raids and increased settler activity often occurring in conjunction.

The killings coincided with a large-scale raid by thousands of settlers and far-right Israelis on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem. The raiding party included Knesset members, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, rabbis, and leaders of an extremist 'Temple organization.' They performed Jewish rituals at the Muslim holy site, a highly inflammatory action given Al-Aqsa's status as Islam's third holiest site.

Source: www.aljazeera.com