“After the settler stabbed him, the soldiers prevented us from advancing to him or giving him any help. He was on the ground for 20 minutes, bleeding out,” added Naeem.
Documentation by rights group Yesh Din, which monitors settler attacks in the occupied West Bank, showed a similar sequence of events.
“Settlers arrived at the scene and attempted to set up a tent. Friction ensued and settlers left the place. Immediately afterward, soldiers arrived at the scene, and later the settlers returned,” Yesh Din said in a statement.
After the settlers returned, violence again broke out, “during which a settler pulled out a knife and stabbed the young man to death”, the organisation said.
Settler violence and attacks are a daily reality for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, where at least 600,000 Israeli settlers live in approximately 250 illegal settlements, according to rights groups.
The vast majority of investigations into attacks are closed without any punishment for the settlers.