Medics rush a US citizen who reportedly received a gunshot wound in the head to the emergency ward of a hospital in Nablus in the occupied West Bank on September 6, 2024. A Palestinian hospital official said on September 6 that a US citizen died from a “gunshot in the head” in the occupied West Bank, and Israel’s military said it was investigating the incident.
| Photo Credit: AFP

U.S. citizen taking part in a protest against settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank died of her wounds on Friday (September 6, 2024) after being shot in the head by Israeli troops, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the report. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. embassy.

Fouad Nafaa, the head of the Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, told Reuters the woman arrived at the hospital in a very critical condition, with a serious head injury.

“We tried to perform a resuscitation operation on her, but unfortunately she died,” he said.

WAFA said the incident occurred during a regular protest march by activists in Beita, a town near the city of Nablus that has seen repeated attacks by settlers.

The rise in violent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian villages in the West Bank has caused growing anger among Western allies of Israel, including the United States, which has imposed sanctions on a number of individuals.

Friday’s incident comes a few weeks after around 100 settlers attacked the village of Jit, in the northern West Bank, drawing worldwide condemnation and a promise from the government of swift action against anyone found guilty of violence.

Palestinians and rights groups regularly accuse Israeli forces of standing by as attacks take place and even joining in themselves.

In the latest war between Israel and Hamas, children were targets on both sides. Israel started its heavy bombardment of Gaza, a tiny Mediterranean land strip of 2.3 million people, on October 7 after Hamas, the Islamist militant group that runs the enclave, carried out an unprecedented cross-border raid, killing at least 1,400 Israelis.

Of the victims, 447 were children and 248 were women, according to Israeli authorities. In retaliation, Israel has cut off food, fuel and power supplies to Gaza, laid siege to the enclave and started bombing it disproportionately. Israel’s President Isaac Herzog suggested there are no innocent civilians in Gaza. In the Israeli attacks, in 22 days, at least 7,700 people were killed, some 70% of them women and children.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the toll includes more than 3,500 minors. The Israeli attacks have also turned more than a million people refugees. Israel ordered one million people living in northern Gaza to move towards the south. Since children make up half of Gaza’s population, they are the hardest hit age category by the displacement as well.

Now that Israel launched its ground invasion, many more Palestinians will be killed, wounded and displaced, which means many more children would be victimised.