Arab Israeli teen, Palestinian killed by IDF, which says they were stoning motorists

An Arab Israeli teenager from the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Ramle was shot and killed by Israel Defense Forces soldiers in the West Bank on Sunday, after allegedly throwing stones at motorists along the highway.

A second Palestinian suspect was critically injured and later died of his wounds in Israeli custody.

Soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade’s 890th Battalion were on patrol near the Palestinian town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya, on Sunday evening, when the IDF said they identified three suspects hurling stones at the highway.

The soldiers opened fire, killing one suspect and wounding a second. The third suspect was detained and taken for questioning, the IDF said.

The PA’s official WAFA news agency reported that the three suspects had themselves been traveling in a car along the Nablus-Qalqilya road at the time.

The Arab Israeli teenager, identified as 19-year-old Moamen Abu Riyash, is originally from Ramle, in central Israel, but had been living in Qalqilya with his family in recent months, according to the Ynet news outlet.

His relatives denied on Monday that Abu Riyash had been involved in throwing stones, and demanded a transparent investigation into the circumstances of his death.

“He wasn’t throwing stones and wasn’t participating in it. Other people were throwing stones and then the shooting started, and the bullets hit him,” they told Ynet. “We demand a commission of inquiry that will reveal the truth.”

The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry announced on Monday that the second suspect, Baraa Bilal Issa Qablan, 21, had died in Israeli custody after sustaining serious gunshot wounds.

The Palestinian Red Crescent charged that its ambulances were initially blocked by the IDF from reaching the scene, delaying medics from treating Qablan’s wounds.

Both his body and Abu Riyash’s body remained in Israel’s possession on Monday.

המחבל שחוסל – מואמן אבו ריאש תושב קלקיליה pic.twitter.com/ltlUwSFEk8

— כל החדשות בזמן אמת (@Saher_News_24_7) December 7, 2025

In a separate incident on Sunday night, the IDF said a Palestinian suspect tried to ram soldiers with a vehicle in the West Bank town of Burqin.

The military said that the soldiers, who were carrying out a raid in the town, fired at the vehicle, which then fled the scene.

It said security forces were “working to locate the terrorist.”

The incidents came a day after an attempted ramming near a checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron. The would-be attacker was shot and killed by soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade, along with an uninvolved Palestinian civilian.

Violence in the West Bank has surged since Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023. According to the Palestinian Authority, over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers since then. The IDF has said that most of those killed were gunmen, rioters clashing with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

During the same period, 63 civilians and Israeli security personnel have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes during raids in Palestinian cities in the West Bank.

Attacks by settler extremists have also risen sharply. The IDF has recorded more than 752 incidents of settler violence in the West Bank since the start of the year, surpassing the 675 incidents recorded in 2024.