A 20-year-old Palestinian man was killed on Saturday, July 3, by Israeli military fire, following clashes between residents of the West Bank village of Qusra and Israeli settlers, the Palestinian Health Ministry announced.

The about to be evacuated Israeli settler outpost of Evyatar erected on Palestinian lands adjacent to the village of Beita, July 3, 2021 (Photo: Activestills)

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors colonial settlement activities in the northern West Bank, told the Palestinian news agency WAFA that Mohammad Fareed Hasan, a young local Palestinian man in his early twenties, was seriously wounded in his chest by the Israeli occupation army gunfire. Hasan was standing on the rooftop of his home when he was shot, added Daghlas. He was rushed from the scene, near Nablus, to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, in central Israel, where he was pronounced dead. Two other Palestinians were also shot sustaining foot injuries while fending off an attack by racist Israeli settlers on the village of Qusra.

Tensions in this part of the occupied West Bank have been running high during the past weeks over the pending evacuation of the Evyatar settlement outpost that was finally carried out on Friday, July 2 at 4 pm when settlers voluntarily left the small hilltop outpost community in accordance with their deal with the Bennet government, some two months after they first arrived. The settlers vowed to return.

On Saturday, July 3, another demonstration was held in the neighboring Palestinian town of Beita.