Settler charged with terror offenses over shooting attack on Palestinians in October

The State Attorney’s Office files an indictment against a 31-year-old Israeli settler for shooting at a Palestinian family in the northern West Bank, charging him with aggravated assault with a terrorist motive.

According to the indictment, Shmuel Za’afran fired 18 rounds from an assault rifle at the family members in late October 2024 as they attempted to harvest olives in a grove between the Palestinian village of Immatin and the Havat Gilad settlement, where Za’afran lives. The attack left two people wounded, one of whom required multiple surgeries after a bullet broke his left leg.

Prosecutors file the indictment with the Central District Court in Lod. Za’afran is charged with two counts of an act of terrorism of deliberately causing injury with aggravated intent, punishable by up to 40 years in prison.

Za’afran was released to house arrest during the investigation, but prosecutors request he be held in custody until the end of proceedings against him, Hebrew outlets report.

“There is a reasonable basis for the fear that he will endanger the security of the Arab public, wherever they may be, and the public in general,” says the State Attorney’s Office in a statement.

The indictment charges that Za’afran attacked the Palestinians with a group of his friends in order to expel the harvesters. Before setting out, he changed into his army uniform and took his assault rifle to the scene, despite not being on reserve duty.