Palestinian arrested over Israeli boy's killing

A Palestinian man has been arrested over the murder of a 14-year-old Israeli boy, whose disappearance from an outpost in the occupied West Bank sparked a deadly rampage by settlers.

Benjamin Achimeir went missing on 12 April after going to herd sheep near the Palestinian village of Mughayir.

As the search went on, settlers torched homes in Mughayir and shot a resident.

Achimeir's body was found a day later. The Israeli military said he had been killed in a "terrorist attack".

At least four Palestinians were killed as settler violence spread to nearby areas over the following days.

In one incident a 17-year-old boy, Omar Hamed, was killed after being hit by a bullet in the head in an attack by a group of 30 settlers who had been accompanied by Israeli forces, Palestinian officials said. It was not clear whether he was shot by Israeli forces or settlers.

On Monday Israel's Shin Bet security agency, Israeli police and the Israeli military said Ahmed Dawabsha, 21, had been arrested overnight for Benjamin Achimeir's murder and had "linked himself to the attack".

Ahmed Dawabsha was from the village of Duma, the statement said. The village - which like Mughayir is located north of the city of Ramallah - is where a settler murdered three members of a Palestinian family in an arson attack in 2015.

In 2020 Amiram Ben Uliel was convicted of three counts of murder for throwing a firebomb into the home of Saad and Riham Dawabsha, killing them and their 18-month-old son Ali, and leaving four-year-old Ahmed with severe injuries.

However there was no known connection between the arrested man Ahmed Dawabsha and the victims of the arson, Israeli media reported.

Around 700,000 Israelis live in 160 settlements alongside 2.7 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to the settlement watchdog Peace Now.

The international community regards the settlements as illegal, although Israel disputes this.

There are also about 160 so-called outposts, or small settlements which have been built without official approval and are considered illegal under Israeli law.

However the Israeli government has legalised some outposts, giving them the status of settlements - last year 15 outposts were officially recognised, according to the watchdog Peace Now, while settlers established a record 26 new outposts.

Rights groups say incidents of settler attacks, and alleged involvement of the security forces, are rarely fully investigated, with impunity virtually the norm.

Over the weekend Israeli forces raided the Nur Shams refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarm, with the Israeli military saying on Sunday that 14 Palestinian fighters had been killed and nine Israeli soldiers wounded in exchanges of fire. Residents of Nur Shams have only identified five of those killed as fighters, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile on Sunday a Palestinian volunteer paramedic was killed in the northern West Bank while treating people who had been injured by Israeli settlers, the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) said. Mohammed Awad Allan, 50, was trying to treat people injured "by gunshots fired by Israeli settlers", the PRCS said.

Some reports said Awad Allan had been shot by settlers, others said he was shot by Israeli troops.

The Israeli military said its forces were sent to the village of As-Sawiya to break up clashes. It confirmed an ambulance driver was killed, and that it was investigating.

Israeli forces also shot dead three people who they said had attacked troops in other parts of the West Bank.