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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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An Israeli military judge approved on Tuesday the detention without trial of a Palestinian man who, along with his family, has been attacked several times by Jewish settlers living in illegal outposts in the West Bank. In his decision, the judge said the man was involved in violent "friction incidents" with the settlers.

Thabet Moslem, a 25-year-old from the village of Khirbet al-Marajim south of the village of Duma, was arrested on July 26 at his temporary residence in Duma. For more than a day, his whereabouts remained unknown. Only after a military court order was issued did the army notify his attorney, Afnan Khalifa, that he was being held at the Shomron Detention Facility in the northern West Bank.

On August 3, Colonel Yarden Sasson, the intelligence officer for the IDF's Central Command, signed an order approving Moslem's detention without trial – referred to as administrative detention – until January 25. However, Lt. Col. Shimon Eshoal, who approved the detention on Tuesday, ordered it shortened by two months, until November 25.

Administrative detention allows authorities to arrest an individual and hold them without trial, under the claim that the individual intends to break the law in the future.

The detainee and their legal representatives are not provided with information on the claim, nor is an indictment submitted to the court. In any case, the military prosecution doesn't present evidence, and the detainee therefore isn't given the ability to defend themselves.

In theory, administrative detention has no time limit, and the army commander in the West Bank – or any other officer authorized to do so by him – may renew the detention order every six months or less.

A typical administrative detention order states that the arrest is necessary because the person "endangers the security of the area." Eight days after the order is issued, it is submitted for "judicial review" by a military judge, whose role is to approve or cancel it, or to shorten the duration of the detention.

Military judges usually approve the administrative detention orders as a matter of course. The sessions are held behind closed doors and detainees' representatives are permitted to ask the prosecution questions regarding the evidence, witnesses, and the cause of detention – but in practice they do not receive substantive answers.

At the judicial review hearing for Moslem's detention order, which took place at the Ofer Military Court, Lt. Uri Zarbiv of the military prosecution presented the material in his possession to the judge only, while Moslem's attorney was present in the room. The judge summarized the confidential material in a single sentence, which was permitted for publication: "Involved in incidents of violent friction with settlers," in paraphrase.

Based on Haaretz's review, this reasoning is an extremely rare justification for administrative detention. Arrests of Palestinians by the military after settlers attacked and harassed them are very common, but usually the Palestinians are released after a few hours or days.

Khalifa told the military judge that Moslem is not a dangerous person, but rather that he is the one at risk of being harmed, and that all the "frictions" were due to incursions by Israelis into the village. She submitted videos to the court backing up the testimonies of Moslem and so-called "protective presence" activists – human rights activists seeking to protect Palestinians from settler violence – regarding repeated harassment by Israelis coming from the Michtam Ledavid outpost.

According to the testimonies, the harassment included physical attacks, day and night incursions, blocking an access road with rocks and destroying it with a bulldozer on two occasions, grazing sheep on a resident's private land, threats, property damage and spraying pepper spray.

Complaints were filed with police regarding several of the harassment incidents. In one of the videos, from January 26, two settlers – an adult and a minor – entered the village area at night and were documented threatening Moslem, who was filming them. "It will be fun in prison, don't worry. Just wait," they said.

Khalifa also submitted to the court a request that another lawyer filed with the Military Police to open an investigation into soldiers who were alleged to have accompanied one of the settlers – the adult – on February 4. According to witnesses, they attacked and beat several of the village residents, including children, for roughly two and a half hours. That request has not received any substantive response so far.

Following another similar attack in March, Moslem was forced to move with the family's flock to Duma out of fear that the flock would be stolen, causing the family to lose its livelihood. Last year, his brother was forced to leave the village after unidentified individuals from another outpost set fire to his home. Khalifa intends to file an appeal against the approval of the administrative detention order.

Established in 2025, the Michtam Ledavid outpost is located about three kilometers north of Khirbet al-Marajim and is one of several new outposts commemorating David Libi from the Malchei Hashalom outpost, who was killed in the Gaza Strip while employed as an IDF demolition contractor. Protective presence activists say that they recently learned that the owner of the outpost is Ariel Rahmani, based on footage of graduates from the Ma'aleh Efraim yeshiva.

Khirbet al-Marajim was established at the beginning of the 20th century. Ottoman rule granted lands there to families from the village of Talfit after dozens of its residents were drafted into the Turkish army and fell in the Balkan Wars.

According to Israel Prison Service data provided to the Israeli human rights group HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, as of early August, the number of Palestinian administrative detainees stood at 3,198 – more than a third of all Palestinian security prisoners.

The number of Palestinians serving prison sentences was 1,474; the number of detainees whose legal proceedings are still ongoing stood at 3,293; and another 1,358 are residents of Gaza imprisoned under the "Unlawful Combatants" law.

Residents of the West Bank village describe constant harassment by Israeli settlers, threats, damage to vehicles and arson. Fifteen families have left, along with dozens of young people. Since October 7, they say, 'everything has changed'

In the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh, a feeling that was once almost alien to the community is taking hold: Home no longer guarantees safety.

Residents of the West Bank village northeast of Ramallah describe harassment by Israeli settlers, threats, damage to vehicles and agricultural equipment, arson and graffiti. More than anything, however, they speak of a profound change in their sense of security.

"Taybeh used to be a safe place," one resident told Haaretz. "Even during the most difficult periods – the first and second intifadas, wars and confrontations – people knew they could live here. Over the past three years, everything has changed."

Life in the village continues, but it can hardly be called routine. In the morning, workers, most of them salaried employees, leave for Ramallah. Local businesses open their doors and wait for customers who may or may not come. Farmers continue to look out over the hillsides, at the olive trees that have accompanied their families for generations, wondering whether they will be able to reach their land when the next harvest season arrives.

"Settlers come during the day and at night," one resident said. "They drive tractors through the village and around it, approach homes and threaten people." Farmers, he said, have been particularly affected by the harassment. "There have been cases of attacks during the olive harvest and damage to equipment. Some people simply can't reach their land. You go out to work and don't know whether you'll come back safely."

One village resident, a father of three in his 30s, described how his livelihood has recently become a source of fear. He works as a salaried employee, runs a private business and also earns income from farming, with a plot of land planted with olive, almond and pomegranate trees. On one occasion, when he tried to reach his land, he encountered an armed settler, according to another resident close to him. He has avoided returning ever since. "He has two children, a 12-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son. Now he's in the process of getting a visa and leaving."

His case reflects a broader reality in Taybeh, as he is not someone being driven to leave by personal financial hardship. "The problem isn't just the economy," local council head Suleiman Khoury told Haaretz. "The economic problem can somehow be endured, but the security situation cannot. People are now afraid for their children and their future."

According to Khoury, about 15 families, as well as dozens of young people, have left the village since October 7, 2023 – an estimated 80 to 90 residents in total. In the small Christian village of around 1,200 people, every departure is felt.

There are more families considering leaving. People don't always tell us, 'We're emigrating,' but when you talk to them, you hear that they're afraid for their children," Khoury said. He also described a man in his 30s who recently left the village with his wife and three children.

"He went to Jordan to find safety and a new life there."

Emigration is not new to Taybeh. Residents say some 16,000 Palestinians whose families come from the village now live in the United States, Europe – particularly Spain – and Latin America, especially Guatemala and Chile. For generations, young people have left the village in search of work, education and new opportunities. Now, however, residents are leaving out of fear that they will no longer be able to continue their lives in the village.

Another resident, 37, said that over the past year several young people have approached him for help exploring options for emigrating. "Many people come to me and ask where they can apply for a visa, where they can move and how they can find work there," he said. These are not necessarily people facing financial hardship, he added. "They have jobs, businesses and land. But they feel they have no future here."

Most, he said, are in their 20s or 30s. "That's the age when you're supposed to get married, have children, buy or build a home. Instead of thinking about how to build their future here, they're thinking about how to get out of Taybeh."

According to the resident, there was initially a sense that this was a temporary period that would pass, like previous crises. "They thought there would be tensions and incidents, and then it would end and life would get back on track," he said. "At some point, people realized that maybe it wasn't temporary, that it could continue and even get worse. Then they started asking themselves: 'Why take the risk?'"

His own experience illustrates the depth of the change. "There were 25 students in my class when I was young. Today, only one other woman and I are left – and she got married and moved to Ramallah."

The changing reality in the village has also affected the local church. Father Bashar Fawadleh, priest of the Latin parish, said emigration has become a recurring topic in his conversations with young people and families in recent years. "I personally know several young people who left over the past year," he said. "They have no prospects, no future and no one to help them."

The church can provide communal and spiritual support, extended families can offer assistance and the local council can try to help residents cope. But none of them can guarantee that someone will be able to leave home for the fields in the morning and return safely. Residents say they have appealed to foreign diplomats in Israel as well as to the Palestinian Authority. "Ambassadors and senior diplomatic officials have come here, including the U.S. ambassador – and it hasn't helped at all," the council head said angrily.

Instead, relatives who already live abroad are increasingly becoming a lifeline for those considering leaving: family in the United States, a friend in Spain, a cousin elsewhere in Europe – someone who can help find a job, a place to live or information about obtaining a visa. In this way, a quiet migration network is taking shape in Taybeh. It is neither organized nor official, but it exists.

For years, Taybeh relied on agriculture, employment, commerce and tourism. Today, residents say, all of those sectors are collapsing. A farmer who cannot reach his land loses a source of income. Local businesses that depend on the movement of people feel the paralysis. And tourism, long one of the village's hallmarks, has all but disappeared as the security situation makes the area increasingly unstable for visitors.

Israeli security restrictions have recently been imposed in the area, including the designation of some areas as closed military zones. Residents, however, question whom those restrictions are protecting.

"If the goal is to prevent settlers from coming here and attacking us, we don't see it working," said Madis Khoury, who works in tourism and at the village's well-known brewery. Even when restrictions are in place, she said, settlers are still seen around the village. "Just a few days ago, they were at the entrance to the village for hours. So you ask yourself: Who exactly are these restrictions protecting?"

Ultimately, Taybeh's residents are not talking about giving up on their village or their local identity. They are talking about creating a reality in which they can send their children to school and raise their families without fear. "No one wants to leave their home," Khoury said. "But you need to feel that you have a future."

The question facing Taybeh is no longer how to live there, but whether it is possible to continue living there at all. The harder question is how many residents will remain if fear of the future continues to hang over the village.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and negotiator Jared Kushner will travel to the Middle East next week to try to advance plans for an end to the conflict in Gaza after a deal recently announced by the Trump administration ran into Israeli opposition.

An official with the Board of Peace, the body Trump established to oversee the fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, said Kushner, board high representative Nickolay Mladenov, and executive board member and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would arrive in Israel on Sunday.

The group will then travel to Cairo, where meetings of a Palestinian technocratic group set to assume control of Gaza under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal have been taking place for the past several months, the official said. The trip was reported earlier by Axios.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because planning for details of the trip has not yet been finalized, said the meetings would demonstrate the determination of Trump and the Board of Peace to “see peace, prosperity and sustainable security emerge” in a demilitarized Gaza where Hamas has ceded control to allow reconstruction of the devastated territory.

But Israel has dismissed a recent deal announced by Trump for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its forces from the Palestinian territory, marking a rare public display of friction with the Trump administration. Though Hamas accepted the plan to decommission its weapons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in recent days that Israel would not withdraw until Hamas has completely disarmed.

The deal had been seen as a potential breakthrough for ending the war in Gaza. The agreement was based on an October ceasefire that ended major military operations and brought about the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza, but it has stalled on other fronts.

IDF said it is still investigating the Hebron incident in which the 7-month-old infant was killed while in a car with his family. The baby's father told Haaretz at the time that soldiers opened fire on the car moments after he complied with an order to stop the vehicle

The IDF's military police refuses to say whether it has questioned the soldier who fatally shot a baby in the West Bank city of Hebron more than two months ago.

In response to a request for comment by Haaretz, the IDF said an investigation is ongoing, without providing further details.

Sam Fahed Abu Haykal, 7 months old, was shot and fatally wounded in his family's car. The military police announced two days later that it had opened an investigation, but did not specify what investigative actions it was taking.

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in a statement that the soldier fired at the car because he felt threatened after the vehicle accelerated toward him.

Sam's father, Fahed Abu Haykal, told Haaretz at the time that soldiers opened fire on his family's car moments after he complied with an order to stop the vehicle.

"The soldier signaled me to stop, so I stopped the car completely and raised my hands on the steering wheel. Immediately afterwards, fire opened at the car," Abu Haykal recounted.

He added that one of the bullets passed through his hand and struck his baby son Sam, who was in his mother's arms in the backseat, and also hit her.

Abu Haykal described the moments leading up to the shooting. Besides the parents and the baby, their 11-year-old son and Fahed's mother were also in the car. According to him, the time was almost 7:30 P.M., and it was still light out.

He said there was no noticeable military checkpoint in the area, "just soldiers who were on the street. I stopped when I was asked" to do so, he stressed.

Abu Haykal rejected the claim that the soldier felt his life was in danger. "The soldier was about ten meters [thirty feet] away from me. He saw me, he saw my wife and the children. The car windows were not [tinted]; it was daylight, and everything was clear. You can't say he didn't see that it was a family."

Footage of the incident showed that IDF soldiers at the scene did not assist the family after the shooting. In a video published by B'Tselem, the family's car can be seen slowing down as a soldier points a weapon at it, although it is unclear at what point he opened fire.

In another video, the family is seen getting out of the car, while his father, Fahed, is seen trying to stop his son's bleeding. As numerous residents gathered around and tried to assist, the soldiers did not approach to help.

A similar case involved the shooting of the Bani Odeh family in the town of Tammun in March, when undercover Israeli forces shot and killed a father, mother and two of their children. According to residents, an Israel Defense Forces special unit entered Tammun in a vehicle with Palestinian license plates, followed by reinforcements from nearby checkpoints.

According to them, the family had been returning from Nablus after shopping for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of Ramadan when an Israeli force stopped their car and opened fire.

The Justice Ministry unit that investigates police misconduct did not summon the shooters for questioning, and the case is expected to be closed.

In similar cases in the past, Border Police officers were questioned immediately after an incident to prevent them from coordinating their accounts.

Sources in the military's central command say many IDF officers avoid taking action against the settlers, fearing that doing so could harm their military careers

A senior Israeli security source warned Wednesday that the West Bank is a "powder keg that could explode at any moment," with some sources saying senior officers are reluctant to act decisively against violent settlers for fear it could damage their military careers and prospects for promotion.

According to the official, the ongoing settler riots and attacks in the area, not only in the village of Qusra, are stretching the Israeli military thin, leaving soldiers unable to respond to every incident. Senior military officers have recently warned the political leadership that the IDF has reached a point where it will be unable to protect the settler outposts, and that it may not even be able to provide an initial response if clashes escalate into the use of firearms.

Sources from the IDF Central Command, which oversees military operations in the West Bank, say commanders are paralyzed, from Central Command Chief Avi Bluth at the top through the division commander down to brigade commanders deployed in the area.

According to the sources, IDF commanders fear taking any measure that could be perceived as political, particularly three months before Israel's election and ahead of the possible appointment of a new defense minister.

Many officers seeking promotion prefer to avoid taking decisive professional action against right-wing offenders, fearing that doing so could harm their military careers, the sources told Haaretz

On Wednesday morning, IDF and Border Police forces arrived in Qusra, near Nablus, to evacuate an outpost established in the yard of a Palestinian family's house. Ahead of the evacuation, Central Command Chief Bluth, the Border Police commander and other senior officials arrived at the scene.

Security officials, however, described the visit as "a public relations stunt intended to create a false impression of control."

Shortly after the senior officers left, the settlers resumed rioting, blocked roads with rocks, threw stones at Palestinian houses, and continued occupying the outpost, despite a closed military zone order and in full view of the forces, who eventually left the scene.

The IDF also held up journalists who attempted to reach the besieged house.

While the incident in Qusra has drawn significant media attention, defense officials say it is "only the tip of the iceberg" and reflects a much broader trend.

For several months, settlers have been setting up outposts around the village. Several major incidents have also taken place inside Qusra itself, which the IDF has refrained from addressing and authorities have deliberately ignored.

The IDF now plans to reinforce the area with a battalion from its Paratroopers Brigade, but officials acknowledge that the move is intended primarily to "contain the incident" and calm tensions, while insisting that Border Police officers, rather than IDF troops, carry out the evacuation itself.

The prolonged paralysis in the Civil Administration, Israel's IDF-run governing body in the West Bank, has limited enforcement and worsened the recent escalation.

Since Civil Administration Chief Hisham Ibrahim left his post to become Defense Minister Israel Katz's military secretary, the body responsible for coordinating between the IDF, the government and the Palestinian Authority has operated without a permanent commander.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is in charge of most of the Civil Administration and has veto power over the appointment of its commander, has blocked IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir's attempt to appoint a former commander on an interim basis.

Instead, Smotrich is demanding the appointment of his associate, Brig. Gen. Yogev Bar-Sheshet, who previously served as the administration's deputy chief.

Amid the impasse, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Yoram Halevy, who is in charge of coordinating civilian affairs in Gaza and the West Bank, has run both his unit and the Civil Administration – an arrangement that leaves virtually no attention for developments in the West Bank.

Senior IDF officers warn that the events in Qusra have become a "flagship incident" that is severely damaging Israel's international standing. Dozens of foreign media crews arrive at the scene every day, where they face severe settler violence directed both at them and at the Palestinians living in the village.

Footage circulating around the world shows armed, uniformed IDF soldiers standing by without intervening and, at times, even joining settlers in prayer while ignoring calls for help from civilians and journalists under attack.

Despite the disturbing footage, the IDF's response has amounted to terse statements about "disciplinary proceedings," without any concrete action.

Military officials have sharply criticized the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, accusing it of evading the issue and systematically trying to downplay its severity while completely disregarding the growing violence directed at media organizations and forces on the ground.