Hebron /PNN/

An illegal Israeli settler has fatally shot a Palestinian youth on suspicion of attempting to carry out an alleged stabbing attack in the south of the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron), the latest amid rising violence in the occupied territories.

The young Palestinian man died of his critical wounds early on Friday after he was shot by an Israeli settler in the Tana Omrim settlement, south of Hebron, according to Palestinian media reports.

The Ministry of Health stated, in a brief statement, that Alaa Khalil Qaysiyah (28 years old), from Al-Dhahiriya town, south of Hebron, was martyred.

Israeli media cited the settler as claiming that the Palestinian youth was trying to carry out a stabbing attack inside the illegal settlement.

Israeli media said sirens sounded in the Tana Omrim settlement on the lands of the al-Dhahiriya town on suspicion of an infiltration into the settlement.

Israeli  occupation forces were reported to have arrived at the settlement and launched a search for other individuals who might have accompanied the young man.

The fatal shooting came a day after Israeli military forces wounded 13 Palestinian youths and arrested 14 others during a raid on a refugee camp in the eastern West Bank city of Ariha.

The slain man, according to Israeli media, was killed after allegedly infiltrating into the colonial settlement and attempting to carry out a stabbing attack although there were no reports of Israeli casualties.

There are 22 Israeli colonial settlements in Hebron, in addition to 15 colonial outposts and four industrial settlements. About 21,000 settlers live in these colonial settlements in violation of international law.

The circumstances surrounding the alleged stabbing attempt remain unclear and largely based on the Israeli version of events.

Israeli has been criticized for its reflexive use of lethal force and “extrajudicial killings” when Palestinian alleged attackers no longer pose an immediate threat. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that circumstances surrounding such killings over the past months remain disputed.

Video footage for similar alleged attacks appears to disapprove Israeli military claims, showing alleged Palestinian attackers did not even attempt to carry out any attacks. Some footage showed Israeli forces manipulating the crime scene following such killings.

Killings of Palestinians in addition to other Israeli measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 55-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler-colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.