Palestinian man killed in West Bank by Israeli soldier backing up settlers
Thamin Khalil Reda Dawabsheh, 35, was shot Wednesday morning in the town of Duma, south of Nablus, by an Israeli off-duty soldier who was accompanying 'an Israeli civilian' near Duma 'during engineering works', the Israeli army said.
Earlier Palestinian reports of the attack had stated that Dawabsheh was killed by an Israeli settler.
35-year-old Thameen Khalil Reda Dawabsheh succumbed to his wounds after being shot by colonists during an attack on the village. pic.twitter.com/cHfdUg4Unl
— WAFA News Agency – English (@WAFANewsEnglish) August 13, 2025
According to the mayor of Duma, Palestinians in the town were 'startled' by an Israeli settler attack, said Al Jazeera's Nida Ibrahim.
'The settlers started assaulting a 14-year-old, leading many Palestinian men to go and try to defend him,' Ibrahim said.
Later, more armed settlers arrived, and they started shooting at the Palestinians, resulting in the death of Dawabsheh, 'whose only crime was being on his land', she added.
Suleiman Dawabsheh, the head of the Duma village council, said that settlers attacked Palestinians and opened fire on them in the southern part of the village, amid land-levelling operations that have been taking place in the area for days, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Ibrahim said that Thamin Dawabsheh's killing is part of a pattern of increased Israeli settler violence against Palestinians that is often filmed on camera.
'Every day, we stumble upon more videos showing how Israeli settlers are attacking Palestinians – intimidating them, shooting them, killing them. And they are not being held accountable by the Israeli authorities,' said Ibrahim.
The statement published by the Israeli army claimed dozens of Palestinians were hurling rocks towards the Israeli civilian and soldier, and 'in response, the soldier fired to remove the threat, and a hit was identified'.
A deadly pattern of Israeli military, settler attacks
Recently, 31-year-old Palestinian activist and English teacher Awdah Hathaleen was shot dead by an Israeli settler on July 28 in the village of Umm al-Kheir, south of Hebron.
Hathaleen was well known for his activism, including helping the creators of the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, which documents Israeli settler and soldier attacks on the Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta.
Israeli settlers, protected by the Israeli military, are often armed and fire at will against Palestinians who try to stop them. They attack residents and burn property with impunity, rarely if ever facing legal consequences.
The Israeli military has also been intensifying its deadly raids, home demolitions and displacement campaigns in the West Bank.
Violent attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the occupied West Bank have surged since October 2023, in tandem with Israel's genocidal war in Gaza, with the United Nations reporting that almost 650 Palestinians – including 121 children – have been killed in the territory by Israeli forces and settlers between January 1, 2024 and the start of July 2025.
A further 5,269 Palestinians were injured during that period, including 1,029 children.
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