ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Israeli police on Thursday announced the arrest five settlers suspected of taking part in an attack on a Palestinian home in the town of Sair, north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, on Christmas Eve that left an eight-month-old baby wounded.

The Palestinian state news agency Wafa reported that the child sustained “moderate injuries to the face and head” after a group of armed settlers threw stones at homes and other property in the area, with the Israeli police report asserting that the detainees were held on charges relating to “serious, violent incidents.” 

A preliminary investigation “determined the involvement of several suspects who came from a nearby outpost,” the police statement said, referring to Israeli settlements that lack official acknowledgement from the Israeli government.

AFP reported a Telegram channel tied to the “Hilltop Youth” — a radical settler group that promotes direct action against Palestinians — circulated a video depicting damage to property in Sair.

More than 500,000 Israeli settlers now live in communities scattered across the West Bank, territory Israel has occupied since 1967. These settlements are deemed illegal under international law.

A wave of violence 

The Wafa news agency also reported that a 17-year-old boy was shot with live ammunition and dozens of Palestinians suffered tear-gas inhalation on Thursday evening during an Israeli military raid in the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.

According to the report, Israeli forces carried out a large-scale incursion into the town, firing live rounds and tear-gas canisters throughout its neighborhoods. The teenager was struck in the thigh, they said, while several other residents experienced suffocation as a result of the gas.

Another 17-year-old was wounded by live fire Thursday evening during an Israeli military raid in the town of Bir Nabala, north of occupied East Jerusalem, according to medical sources, Palestinian state media reported. The teenager was hit in the hand, chest, and leg, officials said.

The Jerusalem provincial authorities said Israeli forces entered the nearby towns of al-Jib and Bir Nabala, sparking clashes in which two people were shot with live ammunition. One of the wounded was taken into custody by Israeli forces, and his identity was not immediately known.

In Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, Israeli forces on Thursday detained three Palestinian residents following a series of assaults by Israeli settlers, local sources cited by Wafa reported.

A local activist said that a group of armed settlers, disguised as Israeli soldiers, intercepted several residents in the area and subjected them to abuse. The settlers eventually handed over two of the men—brothers Ibrahim and Abed Mahmoud al-Adra—to Israeli soldiers, who then detained them.

The Israeli army reported another, separate incident on Thursday near the town of Deir Jarir, outside Ramallah, where an off-duty Israeli reservist in civilian clothes opened fire. The military later received video footage showing an armed man running over a Palestinian.

A subsequent review concluded the man in the video was “the same reserve soldier,” the army said, adding that his weapon had been seized and his reserve service terminated “due to the severity of the incident.”

Video footage circulating on social media appears to show the victim praying on the roadside when a vehicle suddenly swerves and hits him. 

Violence across the West Bank has surged alongside Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which has seen nearly 70,000 Palestinians killed since October 7, 2023, according to local health authorities.

Palestinians and human rights organizations have long accused the Israeli army of turning a blind eye to extremist settlers, if not actively shielding them. Yet there are also increasingly more Israeli voices criticizing settler violence and highlighting the complicity of the Israeli army, which allows them to act with impunity.

Rights groups and UN officials say that, under the cover of the Gaza offensive, Israeli forces and settlers have stepped up raids, shootings, land seizures, and restrictions on Palestinian movement in the occupied territory.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher has warned that the failure to prevent or punish such assaults “is incompatible with international law,” insisting that “Palestinians must be protected” and that “impunity cannot prevail.”

The latest incidents also come as lawmakers in Israel’s far-right governing coalition advanced a bill in the Knesset to apply Israeli law directly to the West Bank, ostensibly a precursor to further annexation. The measure has already cleared a first parliamentary hurdle and would further entrench Israeli control over the territory and effectively end any prospect of a negotiated two-state solution.