American-Israeli settler killed in West Bank shopping mall

A Palestinian killed an American-Israeli settler at a shopping mall in the occupied West Bank yesterday,

The 17-year-old suspect is said to have stabbed Ari Fuld, 45, who died from his injuries. The teenager was shot by armed civilians.

The suspect, from a West Bank village, is in Israeli custody after the incident in the Gush Etzion settlement.

Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, called the West Bank stabbing a “natural response to Israeli crimes against Palestinians” in occupied territory. It did not claim responsibility for the attack.

Palestinian attacks against Israeli settlers in the West Bank have taken place sporadically since 2015. A series of stabbings began in September of that year after Palestinians perceived Israel to be attempting to change the status quo at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

Since 2015, Palestinians have killed more than 50 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British tourist in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks. Israeli forces have killed more than 260 Palestinians.

The attack against the American settler comes as United States-Palestinian relations have fallen to new lows.

In December, US President Donald Trump relocated the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, effectively recognising the contested city as Israel’s capital. The Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of any future state.