Palestinian teenage footballer dies after West Bank shooting during settler attack

JERUSALEM: A 17-year-old Palestinian player who was wounded during an attack on his village in the occupied West Bank has died a week later, according to officials and relatives.

Fadi Hamdallah al-Nassan, who played for Al-Mughayyir Club and was part of the Palestinian national youth team, was laid to rest on Saturday after mourners dressed in black carried his body from the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah to his village of Al-Mughayyir.

The Palestine Football Association said Nassan was shot on July 11 while Israeli settlers were attacking the village. The association accused Israeli forces of firing the shot that wounded him in the thigh. His leg was later amputated, but he did not survive his injuries.

The Palestinian official news agency Wafa also reported that two other residents were struck by rubber bullets fired by Israeli forces during the same incident, while a 10-year-old boy suffered a head injury after being hit by a stun grenade.

Nassan’s father, Hamdallah Al-Nassan, said his son had rushed toward the scene when the assault began.

“He loved football,” his father, Hamdallah Al-Nassan, told AFP. “When the settlers attacked, he heard the screams of the girls and women,” he said. “He went to the scene of the attack and was killed.”

His mother, Hanan al-Nassan, remembered him as a well-regarded young man in the community.

“He was a good student, good in sports, and loved playing football. Everyone loved him,” she said. “May God accept him as a martyr.”

The Israeli military did not immediately respond on Saturday to an AFP request for comment.

Wider violence in the West Bank

The United Nations has recorded a sharp rise in violence blamed on Israeli settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza war began in October 2023. According to an AFP count based on data from the Palestinian health ministry, at least 1,088 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since then.

The death came days after Israel’s security cabinet approved a budget of $434 million to establish 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. This would bring the number of settlements established during his four years in office to 103.

UN bodies, Palestinians and most countries consider the settlements illegal under international conventions and see them as a major barrier to peace. Smotrich, who opposes Palestinian statehood, leads the Religious Zionism party, which draws much of its backing from settlements and is contesting the legislative election due on Oct 27.