This article was prepared by Al Jazeera staff and the Anadolu news agency.

The incident underscores ongoing tensions in the occupied West Bank, where settler violence and military operations frequently escalate.

Published On 23 Jul 202623 Jul 2026

Local reports say Israeli forces fatally shot two Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank after the men tried to put out fires that settlers had set on Palestinian farmland.

According to Palestinian officials cited by Wafa news agency, Israeli forces opened fire and wounded four Palestinians in Beit Furik, east of Nablus. It remains unclear whether settlers or soldiers fired the shots.

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Two of the men later died from their injuries, and Israel has withheld their bodies.

Yousef Hanani, the mayor of Beit Furik, said the town’s residents had attempted to extinguish flames in surrounding agricultural fields when they were attacked by Israeli soldiers and settlers.

Israel claimed that a group of Palestinians set fire to the farmland and attacked a group of settlers from the Derech Avraham outpost, near the illegal Elon Moreh settlement.

An Israeli man was stabbed in the incident and airlifted to hospital, according to the Israeli military report.

Wafa reported that local security and political sources maintained the Palestinians were trying to extinguish settler-caused fires at the time of the attack.

Hanani said Israeli forces had sealed all entrances to Beit Furik and deployed a large number of soldiers and settlers to the surrounding area. The clampdown left dozens of Palestinians trapped in the town.

Hanani said Israeli forces forced one family to evacuate their home near the scene after assaulting the homeowner.

The fires damaged electricity poles while settlers also torched two vehicles belonging to local Palestinian residents.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported earlier on Thursday that its crews treated two men, aged 40 and 43, for gunshot wounds to the abdomen and transferred them to hospital. It did not say whether these were the two men who died from their wounds.

On Thursday evening, a third Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli forces near the illegal Israeli settlement of Ganim. The Israeli military claimed the man stabbed a soldier in the leg before being shot dead.

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 in conjunction.

The events came as thousands of settlers and far-right Israelis raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Thursday.

The raiding party was made up of Knesset members, including far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, rabbis and leaders of an extremist “Temple organisation”.

The group performed Jewish rituals at the Muslim holy site, viewed as a highly inflammatory action given the status of Al-Aqsa, the third holiest site in Islam.

Israeli forces have withheld the bodies of the two deceased Palestinians, a practice often criticized by human rights groups. The town of Beit Furik remains sealed off, leaving dozens trapped. This incident adds to a series of violent confrontations during the harvest season when land access disputes intensify.