Palestinian authorities said Israeli police shot and killed Zakaria Qatusa, 44, when he attempted to climb the concrete barrier separating the occupied West Bank from Jerusalem near the West Bank town of Al-Ram on Tuesday evening, according to an Associated Press report from Jerusalem. Palestinian health officials and the Palestinian Red Crescent identified Qatusa as a resident of Deir Qadis, about 20 kilometers (13 miles) northwest of the shooting site, and his funeral was held on Wednesday.
Israeli police did not immediately respond to queries about the incident, the report said. The killing occurred along the same type of boundary crossings that have drawn repeated confrontations in recent months, as Palestinians from the West Bank seek work in Israel.
Qatusa’s brother, Khalid Qatusa, said in response that the man had been trying to provide for his household. “He was forced to resort to this method as there was no other opportunity to meet the needs of his household and live a dignified life. This was the only way,” Khalid Qatusa said. “He was neither an aggressor nor a threat.”
The report said an increasing number of Palestinians have attempted to enter Israel illegally to work in recent years, particularly after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Before the war, “tens of thousands of Palestinians held permits to work in Israel,” but access was sharply restricted afterward, contributing to surging unemployment amid a deep economic slowdown in the occupied West Bank.
Other shootings have taken place at the same location separating the West Bank town of Al-Ram from Beit Hanina, an east Jerusalem neighborhood, the report added. On Wednesday, officials also reported another fatal incident elsewhere in the West Bank, involving clashes between Israeli settlers and Palestinians.
Also on Wednesday, a Palestinian teenager was killed in a clash with Israeli settlers in the northern West Bank village of Al-Lubban al-Sharqiya. The Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry identified the victim as 16-year-old Youssef Kaabneh.
The Israeli military said soldiers and police officers entered the area in response to reports that livestock from an Israeli outpost was stolen. The military said it worked to disperse a violent riot and was investigating the incident, while family members said settlers and Israeli soldiers descended on the Bedouin community and that Kaabneh was shot during a confrontation involving a sheep herd.
The AP report said livestock theft has become a major source of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians this year as outposts and settlement-related presence expand. Ismail Owais, a 60-year-old resident of the village, said, “Our lives have become a living hell. Settlers can now enter any house or farm and confiscate whatever they want, as if we are spoils of war.”
The report also cited the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, saying Israeli forces or settlers killed at least 47 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank this year as of May 11, including some teenagers like Kaabneh.