Amid escalating violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the body of a missing Israeli teen was discovered following a "terrorist attack," as confirmed by Israel's army. The tensions in the region, which have been simmering for months, reached a new peak with this tragic incident.
The disappearance of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair led to retaliatory attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian villages over the weekend. In al-Mughayyir village, one Palestinian lost his life and 25 others sustained injuries during the Friday attack. The situation escalated on Saturday when Israeli troops delayed the burial of the 26-year-old man's body, causing further unrest.
On Saturday, dozens of Israeli settlers returned to al-Mughayyir, where they proceeded to set fire to 12 homes and multiple cars. This resulted in three villagers being injured, one of them critically. Border police had to intervene by using tear gas to disperse the gathering crowd.
In a neighboring village called Douma, Israeli settlers also set fire to several homes. According to reports from Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, six individuals were injured by gunfire, although the source of the shots remains unclear.
Tensions in the West Bank have been especially high since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in nearby Gaza on Oct. 7, sparked by the Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostages. More than 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in Israel's offensive, according to Gaza health officials.
Hamas since then has been trying to ignite other fronts, including in the West Bank, in hopes of exerting more pressure on Israel. Such efforts have largely failed, though more than 460 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since Oct. 7, most in clashes sparked by army raids but some by vigilante settlers.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing of the Israeli teen.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the killing "We will get to the murderers and their helpers as we do to anyone who harms the citizens of the state of Israel," he said in a statement issued by his office.
The year 2014 marked a tragic event with the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank, leading to heightened tensions and sparking a 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, which was the most deadly confrontation between the two parties at that time.
Successive Israeli administrations have expanded the construction of Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, areas that the Palestinians hope to include in a future state alongside Gaza. These settlements vary in size and development, ranging from large suburban-like communities to smaller outposts consisting of only a few mobile homes.
While Israel has built numerous settlements throughout the occupied West Bank, the smaller outposts lack official authorization, although the government often provides them with implicit support. The majority of the international community views all West Bank settlements as illegal and as barriers to achieving peace.
Currently, over 700,000 Israelis reside in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories that were seized by Israel in 1967.
