The West Bank saw a field escalation on Sunday, 20 September 2026, after an Israeli settler was killed in a shooting near the Halamish settlement, known in Israel as Neve Tzuf, north-west of Ramallah, and a young Palestinian man was killed by Israeli forces near Jenin. The developments were accompanied by searches, arrests and the closure of roads and checkpoints, as well as the imposition of a curfew in neighbourhoods of Hebron.
Shooting near Halamish and arrest of suspect
The events began when a gunman opened fire from a car at Israeli settlers near Halamish, according to Israeli officials, killing a settler before leaving the scene. The Israeli army said a soldier who was near the site arrived minutes later and shot at the gunman, wounding him.
The army added that the injured Palestinian man went to a hospital in Ramallah for treatment before being arrested by police and Israeli forces. According to the military account, the suspect in the attack was receiving treatment for a gunshot wound inflicted by the soldier who arrived at the scene when he was arrested.
Israeli forces launched extensive searches around Ramallah after the incident and closed checkpoints and roads while pursuing the attacker. Palestinian reports said the measures caused major traffic congestion in parts of the West Bank and directly affected Palestinians’ movement between cities, towns and villages.
Palestinian killed near Jenin in separate incident
In a separate incident near the Ganim settlement east of Jenin, Israeli forces opened fire on two Palestinians inside a car. The Israeli army said they had attempted to carry out a ramming attack against its soldiers at a military checkpoint in the area, confirming that no troops were injured. According to its account, the gunfire killed one of them and led to the arrest of the other.
The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed that the young man had been killed by Israeli forces and said the forces had detained his body. The incident came amid the extensive military deployment that followed the shooting near Halamish, while the army presented it as foiling an attempted ramming attack, in an account attributed to it. The Ganim settlement lies east of Jenin.
It was evacuated in 2005 as part of Israel’s unilateral disengagement plan, before Israel reopened it in August last year and allowed settlers to return, according to information reported about developments in the area. In another incident, Israeli army radio said forces arrested a person at the Rimmonim junction east of Ramallah on suspicion of attempting to carry out a ramming attack.
It added that the incident caused no injuries among Israeli soldiers, as the level of deployment and alert was raised at various locations across the West Bank. The Israeli army reinforced its forces around the Halamish settlement and closed its entrances and exits during the searches that followed the shooting.
Reinforcements and closures extend to central West Bank
Israeli army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir also ordered additional forces to be sent to the area as part of the military and security measures imposed after the settler was killed. The closures extended to other areas in the central West Bank, where Israeli forces closed six military checkpoints, as well as the entrances to towns and villages north and east of Ramallah, according to Israeli reports.
The measures led to vehicle queues and widespread traffic congestion as deployments and inspections continued. Israeli forces also entered the town of Beit Duqqu, north-west of Jerusalem, which field reports said was the hometown of the shooter.
Curfew imposed on Hebron neighbourhoods as arrests continue
The forces surrounded the Abdullah bin Jaber Mosque in the town during the afternoon prayer as part of measures taken after the attack that killed the Israeli settler near Halamish. The measures reached the southern West Bank, where the Israeli army imposed a curfew on Sunday evening on more than 2,500 Palestinians in several neighbourhoods in central Hebron.
The curfew came as closures and military reinforcements covered multiple areas of the West Bank, from Jenin in the north to Hebron in the south. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the army and the internal security service, Shin Bet, to reinforce forces in the West Bank, impose closures and carry out attacks and arrest campaigns, justifying this by “preserving Israel’s security”.
He added that he had ordered immediate measures to demolish the shooter’s home in Neve Tzuf. Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, called on the Israeli army to enter the village where the shooter came from and level it to the ground, in his words. His call came among a series of statements by Israeli officials demanding tougher measures against the attacker and his surroundings after he killed the settler.
In a later development, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir entered Al-Aqsa Mosque under heavy security, then called in an official statement for the shooter to be executed, making him the first person to whom the law he referred to would be applied. Ben-Gvir said: “This is the first case in which the law on the death penalty for terrorists can be applied.
The law is the law, and this is the opportunity. Execute him now.” The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, for its part, praised the shooting near the Halamish settlement and described it as “heroic” in a statement. The movement said the attack was a “forceful and practical response” to what it described as Netanyahu’s recent statements and provocations, specifically mentioning his tours inside the tunnels beneath Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Hamas added that such attacks came as part of what it described as a “natural response” to violations against holy sites. The movement’s statement represented the first publicly declared Palestinian reaction to the shooting, amid continuing Israeli military measures and closures that followed it in several parts of the West Bank.
The events come as the West Bank sees an escalation in Israeli military operations and settler attacks on Palestinians and their property since the outbreak of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, which Palestinians describe as a genocidal war. Recorded incidents include the killing and arrest of Palestinians, the demolition of homes and structures, and the burning of mosques and cars.
The attacks have also included the bulldozing of agricultural land and preventing Palestinian farmers from reaching their land, alongside displacement and settlement expansion. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 2023 during Israeli military operations, armed clashes and attacks carried out by settlers.
