Israeli soldier shoots Palestinian man during West Bank land confrontation

An Israeli soldier shot a Palestinian man, wounding him in the leg, as settlers confronted villagers by grazing livestock on Palestinian-owned land in the town of Faqqua in the occupied West Bank.

Eyewitnesses said that a group of settlers had entered the area with their livestock, prompting residents to try to stop them. Israeli forces then intervened and, according to men at the scene, opened fire at residents. One of them shot Qassem Hussam, a Palestinian man in his mid-30s, wounding him in the leg.

Reached by the Guardian, the IDF confirmed it had received a report of the incident and that the person who fired was one of its soldiers.

“Earlier today [Saturday], a report was received regarding friction between Israeli civilians and Palestinians near the area of Faqqua,” the IDF said. “An IDF force that was at the scene fired into the air and toward a Palestinian.”

Mohammed al-Sheikh, 34, who was standing next to Hussam, told the Guardian the confrontation began when villagers encountered Israeli settlers grazing livestock on Palestinian-owned land.

“Then the Israeli soldiers came,” al-Sheikh said. “They started shooting. One soldier shot Hussam and he fell to the ground. We immediately went to help him and move him away. We couldn’t get an ambulance to the area, so we took him to hospital in a private car.”

Hussam was taken to hospital in a light-to-moderate condition, according to the Palestine Red Crescent.

The Israeli military said the incident was being reviewed by commanders and that its findings would be forwarded to the relevant authorities for examination. The IDF added that the military was investigating the soldier who shot the Palestinian man, apparently in breach of army protocol, according to the Times of Israel.

Video of the incident shows a group of Israeli soldiers and settlers confronting unarmed Palestinian men before shots are fired.

The incident is the latest to raise questions over the Israeli government’s ability or willingness to curb violent settlers in the occupied West Bank, where attacks have continued to increase.

On 8 September, the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, said he would “not stand by” as horrific suffering continued, writing in the Guardian that for too long the UK had been hesitant to act, “fearful of being accused of being anti-Israel”.

Ed Miliband, the UK’s foreign secretary, said the government would now take the official position that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was unlawful in its entirety, and announced sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements.

The dramatic shift in the UK’s position came after a summer of intense diplomacy against a backdrop of rising settler violence in the West Bank, which led 12 countries, including France and Canada, to announce sanctions.

After Miliband described violent Jewish settler activity in the occupied West Bank as “ethnic cleansing” carried out with the tacit backing of the government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, announced retaliatory measures including the closure of the consulate and entry bans on several MPs.

It marked the latest stage in a rapidly worsening dispute between the two countries, with diplomatic relations at their lowest point in years, even as violence in the West Bank has continued.

Israeli forces also carried out raids across Jenin governorate on Saturday, arresting six people and injuring a 14-year-old boy, who suffered a broken hand, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Soldiers also raided several villages around Jenin, while forces entered at least five towns in Bethlehem governorate and set up a checkpoint at Za’atara.

East of Ramallah, Israeli settlers attacked the outskirts of Burqa, throwing stones at homes and vehicles.

On 4 September, two Palestinian teenagers were shot dead in al-Mughayyir after settlers entered the village under police and military escort and took dozens of sheep from a Palestinian home, residents and Israeli activists said.

The victims were Khalil Abu Alia, 16, and Omar al-Nassan, 19. Three other pupils from their 470-strong school had already been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers this year.