Israeli forces shoot US citizen in occupied West Bank

Israeli forces shot and injured an American citizen during a demonstration on Friday that was being held in Beita, a Palestinian village near the occupied West Bank town of Nablus, several Palestinian rights organisations have told Middle East Eye.

Amado Sison* was hit by a bullet that shot through the back of his right thigh and left a large exit wound. The bullet, however, missed all of Sison's major arteries and his bones but he has soft tissue damage from the attack, according to Vivi Chen, an activist with Defend Palestine:Faz3a. Chen was also the victim of an attack by Israeli settlers last month.

Sison was carried more than 500 metres as Israeli forces continued to attack the Palestinians gathered at the site of the demonstration.

After being shot, activists say that Sison's ambulance was forced to stop at several Israeli checkpoints, leading to a delay in his medical treatment. Eventually, he underwent a successful surgery and was seen smiling in his hospital room.

A State Department spokesperson told Middle East Eye that Washington was aware of the incident and was in contact with local authorities to get more information.

"We are greatly concerned when any US citizen is harmed overseas and work to provide consular assistance," the spokesperson said.

"We reiterate our advice to US citizens to reconsider travel to the West Bank. Over the past few months, there has been an increase in extremist violence and military activity."

The shooting took place against the backdrop of a six-week-long campaign by Israeli settlers accompanied by Israeli soldiers who were antagonising the Palestinian residents of Beita. In June, the Israeli security cabinet legalised the illegal Evyatar settlement outpost in the lands of Beita, and it has since been repopulated with Israeli settlers.

Palestinians have been demonstrating against the settlement since it was first erected in 2013, and in recent weeks those protests have been reignited, with the goal of stopping the dispossession of Palestinian land. However, Israeli forces have used violent means against the protesters, including tear gas and live ammunition.

A total of 17 people have been killed in Beita by Israeli forces or settlers since 2020.

"Ten months into Israel's US-funded genocide under the guise of war Gaza, we stand in unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian resistance and the popular resistance in Beita," the groups Defend Palestine:Faz3a, PAL-Shield, and the International Solidarity Movement said in a statement shared with MEE.

Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has soared since the beginning of Israel's war on Gaza last October.

In June, the United Nations reported that Israeli security forces and Israeli settlers have killed more than 500 Palestinians in the West Bank since the war began.

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, said in a report that the cases of these killings showed "consistent violations of international human rights law on the use of force by the ISF (Israeli security forces) through unnecessary and disproportionate use of lethal force and an increase in apparently planned targeted killings".

Sison isn't the first American to be attacked by Israeli forces. Several US citizens have either been killed by Israeli soldiers or have died while in Israeli military custody.

Shireen Abu Akleh, a US citizen and veteran Palestinian journalist, was killed by Israeli snipers during a military raid on the city of Jenin in the West Bank.

Despite major international outrage over the killing and calls for a US investigation, the Biden administration published a classified report that remains unseen to the public.

* A pseudonym used to protect the victim's identity