Two Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces as West Bank fields set ablaze

What the report says

Al Jazeera, citing local Palestinian reports and Anadolu, reported that Israeli forces shot two Palestinian men in Beit Furik, east of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, on Thursday, July 23, 2026. Palestinian officials told the Wafa news agency that four Palestinians were wounded by gunfire in the area and that two later died. The report said Israel withheld the bodies.

According to Beit Furik Mayor Yousef Hanani, residents had gone to put out fires in nearby agricultural fields when Israeli soldiers and settlers attacked them. Wafa-cited local sources said the fires had been started by settlers. Al Jazeera reported that the Palestinian Red Crescent Society treated two men, ages 40 and 43, for abdominal gunshot wounds and took them to hospital, though it was not confirmed in the article whether they were the two who died.

Israel gave a different account, saying Palestinians had set fire to farmland and attacked settlers from the Derech Avraham outpost near the Elon Moreh settlement. The Israeli military said an Israeli man was stabbed and evacuated by air to a hospital. Hanani said Israeli forces closed Beit Furik’s entrances, trapping residents, and that fires damaged electricity poles while settlers burned two Palestinian-owned vehicles.

The same report said Israeli forces later shot dead another Palestinian near the Ganim settlement after the military alleged he stabbed a soldier. Al Jazeera placed the incidents amid heightened West Bank violence since the Gaza war began, including more military raids and settler activity, and noted that far-right Israelis and settlers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem the same day.