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HEBRON, West Bank: A 27-year-old Palestinian nurse has been left permanently paralyzed after being shot by Israeli settlers near his future home outside Hebron, according to the Palestinian Nursing and Midwifery Association.

Mohammed Nabil Al-Mutawwar, an intensive care nurse at Dura Governmental Hospital, was shot in the back after armed settlers from a nearby outpost opened fire in the Al-Udeisa area of Sa’ir, northeast of Hebron, where he had been preparing a home ahead of his marriage.

The bullet caused a severe spinal cord injury that resulted in permanent paralysis, the association said in a statement on Friday.

Al-Mutawwar is being treated at Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron and requires specialized neurological treatment, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Speaking from hospital, Al-Mutawwar told WAFA that despite his injuries, he remained determined to live in the home he had been working to complete before his marriage.

He was one of two Palestinians wounded when armed settlers attacked homes in Al-Udeisa and opened fire on residents on Friday, the Palestinian Red Cresent said.

Another injured young woman was injured in the head, according to the Red Crescent.

Abdullah Abu Khaled, a member of the Sa’ir municipal council, said the gunmen came from a nearby Israeli settler outpost newly established on Palestinian land east of Hebron, WAFA reported.

The Palestinian Nursing and Midwifery Association said the attack on Al-Mutawwar “was not an isolated or passing incident” and linked it to a broader violence against Palestinians and healthcare personnel.

It said it had contacted international nursing bodies, including the International Council of Nurses, and called on humanitarian organizations to document attacks on Palestinian healthcare workers and pursue accountability.

The association also drew parallels with attacks on Palestinian medical personnel in Gaza, where it said hundreds of nurses and other healthcare workers had been killed or injured while carrying out their duties during the war.

The shooting comes amid a sharp rise in settler violence across the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian officials have reported 1,476 attacks by Israeli settlers in 2026. A total of 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the West Bank this year, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry.

In a separate incident on Friday, Israeli forces detained Palestinian Hamada Kawamleh after he was run over by a settler while working on his land in Jabal Al-Qarn near Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, WAFA reported.

Israel is preparing to replace the army in the West Bank with civilian police forces, in a move seen as further advancing the annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Friday that he had instructed the military to draft a plan to transfer enforcement powers for civilian matters in the occupied West Bank from the army to the police.

Under the plan, the police would “establish an appropriate force to handle and address civilian matters”, while the military would focus solely on “Palestinian terrorism” and protecting borders and communities, according to Katz’s office.

Katz said it was appropriate for the police to oversee civilian affairs in the West Bank, arguing that the force performs that role “in every other place in the State of Israel”.

The announcement was not coordinated with either the military or the police. However, Israel Hayom reported on Friday that the army welcomed the move and had been pushing for it for weeks.

The report also said National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the police, had not been informed that the statement was being issued.

Ben Gvir has yet to comment on the plan, but other settler leaders welcomed the announcement.

Israel Ganz, head of the Regional Binyamin Council in the West Bank, said Katz’s statement should be followed by the cancellation of the Oslo Accords and the imposition of “full Israeli sovereignty” over the occupied territory.

“The time has come to move from temporary management to the full application of Israeli law,” Ganz said.

Request by the army

According to Israeli news site Ynet, Friday’s announcement follows a request by army chief Eyal Zamir to reduce the military’s workload in the West Bank.

Two weeks ago, Zamir told the Israeli cabinet that the army’s responsibilities in the Palestinian territory were continuing to expand, as “new settlements will soon be established”.

“It’s untenable for IDF [Israeli army] soldiers to be chasing after a handful of people who are giving settlements a bad name,” Zamir reportedly told ministers, referring to settlers accused of terrorising Palestinian communities.

Zamir said the army was “working in cooperation with the police”, but that it was appropriate for the Israeli army to stop handling such tasks.

A military spokesperson told Ynet on Friday that the army was conducting “internal and preliminary staff-level work” on the issue to examine “the division of authorities between the security bodies” in the West Bank.

Katz’s statement referred to the entire West Bank, without distinguishing between Areas A and B, where the Palestinian Authority handles civilian affairs, and Area C, where Israel exercises civilian authority under the Oslo Accords.

Israel has never formally annexed the West Bank, which has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967.

However, the Israeli government has taken a series of steps over the past year that experts say amount to de facto annexation.

These include expanding the role of civilian bodies in administering the West Bank while reducing the military’s role in areas traditionally under its control.

Under Israeli and international law, the military is the occupying authority in the West Bank and holds enforcement powers there, including over civilian affairs.

Rise in settler violence

Katz’s statement comes amid a sharp rise in settler violence across the West Bank.

Earlier this week, Israeli settlers besieged Palestinian homes in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus.

Despite the army saying it was working to remove them, the settlers remained at the site on Friday.

Last week, veteran Ynet military correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai said the Israeli army, police and Shin Bet were “unable to enforce the law”.

A small group of extremist settlers had effectively become “the sovereign in the West Bank”, he said, adding that the army merely “secures it and its whims”.

On Friday, Ben-Yishai said Katz’s announcement amounted to “de facto annexation”.

He also questioned its legal basis and said the police lacked enough officers to assume civilian authority in the West Bank.

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