Killing of young Israeli shepherd in West Bank: Israeli army says it has arrested a suspect

The Israeli army announced Monday that it has arrested a suspect in the recent murder of a young Israeli shepherd in the West Bank. The killing angered the settlers, who carried out deadly raids on several villages in retaliation.

Benjamin Ahimeir, 14, disappeared on April 12 while tending sheep and returned without him to the farm where he lived in the settlement of Malachei Hashalom, northeast of Ramallah. His body was discovered nearby the next day.

In connection with the killing, Israeli soldiers arrested a resident of the Palestinian village of Duma, located a few kilometers from Malachi Hashalom, in an overnight raid, the Israeli army said, identifying the arrested suspect as Ahmed Dawabcheh, 21.

“During his first interrogation, Dawabche stated that he participated in the terrorist attack on April 12 near the Malachi Hashalom farm, during which 14-year-old Benjamin Ahimeir was killed,” the army explains. Following the disappearance and then discovery of the body, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian communities, sometimes previously isolated by the army, burning houses and cars.

Several wounded and one killed in the West Bank

According to OCHA, the UN humanitarian agency, a Palestinian was killed and 23 others were injured in the village of al-Mughayir, located 500 meters from Malachi Hashalom and attacked by settlers armed with machine guns and Molotov cocktails.

The West Bank, territory occupied by Israel since 1967, is home to three million Palestinians, as well as nearly 490,000 Israelis living in colonies considered illegal under international law, including the Malachi Hashalom site. Evacuated several times by the army, it is regularly reoccupied by settlers.

The West Bank has been the scene of two years of bouts of violence, exacerbated by the deadly Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement in Israel that sparked the current war in the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces carry out almost daily raids in the West Bank, saying they want to fight Palestinian armed groups.

At least 486 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 7, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Since the same date, nine Israelis, including five security forces, have been killed in violence in the West Bank, according to UNOCHA.