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Israel says forces open fire on West Bank stone-throwers, one dead

By Thomson Reuters Jan 1, 2026 | 3:06 AM

Jan 1 (Reuters) – The Israeli military said its forces killed a Palestinian in the occupied West ‍Bank in the early hours on Thursday as they opened fire on people who were throwing stones at soldiers.

Two other people were hit on a ‌main road near the village ‌of Luban al-Sharqiya in Nablus, the military statement added. It described the people as militants and said the stone-throwing was ​part of an ambush.

Palestinian authorities in the West Bank said a ‍26-year-old man they ​named as Khattab Al Sarhan ​was killed and another person wounded.

Israeli ‍forces had closed the main entrance to the village of Luban al-Sharqiya, in Nablus, and blocked several secondary roads on Wednesday, the Palestinian ‍Authority’s official news agency WAFA reported.

More than a thousand Palestinians were killed in the ‍West Bank ‍between October 2023 and ​October 2025, mostly in operations ​by ⁠security forces and some ‌by settler violence, the U.N. has said.

Over the same period, 57 Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks.

(Reporting by Ali Sawafta, Writing by Ahmed Elimam, Editing by ⁠Andrew Heavens)