JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli settler gunfire killed two Palestinian brothers on Monday in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, as settler violence has surged in the territory and Israel intensifies its military presence because of the new war across the region.
In a statement, the health ministry identified the victims as Mohammad and Faheem Mo’mar. Mohammad was shot in the head and Faheem was hit in the pelvis. They were killed in their village of Qaryout, in the northern West Bank. Three others were wounded by gunfire, including a third brother, prominent Israeli rights group B’Tselem said.
The group said ambulances couldn't reach the wounded for over an hour because of checkpoint closures Israel has imposed on the territory since the start of the latest war. Israel says the closures are temporary and a security measure. But Palestinians say they choke off movement in the territory, with potentially deadly consequences.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Monday's shootings bring the number of Palestinians killed by settler violence this year to three, and come after Israeli settlers shot and killed 19-year-old Nasrallah Abu Siyam, a Palestinian American man, on Feb. 19.
Palestinian media and B’Tselem posted videos to social media showing a group of around 10 settlers standing adjacent to a Palestinian home in Qaryout. One settler can be seen aiming his rifle at the top floor of the home. Another video shows Palestinians rushing as they carry a bleeding man toward medical care.
The wounded were brought to a hospital in the central West Bank city of Nablus, where The Associated Press filmed men grieving over the body of one of the brothers. Villagers helped doctors pull bloodied bodies onto operating tables and cover the dead and injured with blankets.
Adham Johary, who lives in the village, told the AP that a settler had been seen using a bulldozer on the edge of town and fled when he saw young Palestinian men approaching him.
“Less than 10 minutes later, more than 10 settlers attacked nearby houses. The young residents attempted to defend the area, and random gunfire was directed at the young men and the entire area,” he added.
Palestinians and rights groups say that Israeli authorities routinely fail to prosecute settlers or hold them accountable for violence. The U.N. humanitarian office says that last year it documented the highest daily average of settler attacks causing death, injury or property damage — five — since it began recording such incidents in 2006.
The military body responsible for administering the territory, COGAT, on Saturday said it has closed crossings in the West Bank and Gaza for security reasons. Palestinians in the West Bank say the movement restrictions have made it hard to access services, blocking some villages from urban areas where there are hospitals and shops.
Two bodies identified as Palestinian brothers Mohammad and Faheem Mo'mar, who according to the Palestinian Health Ministry were shot by Israeli settlers in their home village of Qaryut, lie at a hospital's morgue in West Bank city of Nablus, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
A police officer stands guard by two bodies, identified as Palestinian brothers Mohammad and Faheem Mo'mar who according to the Palestinian Health Ministry were shot by Israeli settlers in their home village of Qaryut, at the hospital's morgue in the West Bank city of Nablus, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Mourners sit outside a hospital morgue where two bodies were brought, identified as Palestinian brothers Mohammad and Faheem Mo'mar, and who according to the Palestinian Health Ministry were shot by Israeli settlers in their home village of Qaryut, in the West Bank city of Nablus, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. never stopped fighting for civil rights around the world. This includes South Carolina, the state where he was born and raised, and where he first experienced state-sanctioned racial discrimination.
Jackson's body lay in state Monday inside the South Carolina Capitol. It started with a rousing version of the Black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” that reverberated through the Statehouse — a building that was partially destroyed in 1865 during the Civil War, which South Carolina started to keep slavery.
Before the doors opened to the public, politicians and other guests remembered a man who grew up in segregated Greenville and, in 1960, led seven Black high school students into the whites-only library branch. They sat down, quietly read books and magazines, and were arrested. And Jackson's civil rights career began.
“Because of his efforts, I can sit where I am today,” said Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who has served 33 years in Congress and first met Jackson when they were on rival high school sports teams in segregated South Carolina. They forged a lifelong friendship through the civil rights struggle.
Jackson died Feb. 17 at age 84 after battling a rare neurological disorder that affected his mobility and ability to speak in his later years.
His casket, draped in an American flag, arrived at the South Carolina Statehouse on a horse-drawn caisson on a chilly, cloudy morning. A special white-gloved Highway Patrol honor guard escorted Jackson inside the Statehouse and to the second floor, where well over 100 people packed under the rotunda for a ceremony before the public was invited in to pay their respects. Behind Jackson's casket, with his back turned, was a statue of former U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun, a zealous defender of slavery.
When the Statehouse doors opened to the public, a line seven blocks long was waiting. People walked up to the second floor and were given a moment to pray or take a picture or a selfie before a trooper in a dress uniform politely asked them to keep moving.
The South Carolina services are part of two weeks of events. It began with Jackson’s body lying in repose last week at his Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s Chicago headquarters.
After South Carolina, Jackson will be returned to Chicago for a large celebration of life gathering at a megachurch and the final homegoing services at the Rainbow PUSH headquarters. Plans for a service in Washington, D.C., to honor him have been postponed until a later date.
Nationally and internationally, Jackson advocated for the poor and underrepresented for voting rights, job opportunities, education and health care. He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders.
Through his Rainbow PUSH Coalition, he channeled cries for Black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, pressuring executives to make America a more open and equitable society. He was the Civil Rights Movement’s torchbearer after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, and would run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.
Jackson was present in 2015 when the South Carolina House voted to finally remove the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds. Several were placed there during the 1960s in opposition to the federal government's push for integration.
South Carolina’s longest-serving legislator found Jackson in the celebration. Democratic Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter said he pulled her aside.
“It’s great to take down the Confederate flag. But what about the Confederate agenda,” Cobb-Hunter recalled him saying. “What I want people to remember is there is still much work to do.”
Jackson also pushed in 2003 for Greenville County to honor King by matching the federal holiday in his honor.
It's not just Black South Carolinians who owe Jackson a debt of gratitude. Anyone who enjoys the rewards of a rapidly growing state, thanks in part to manufacturers like luxury carmaker BMW and airplane maker Boeing locating here, owes him, Greenville Mayor Knox White said.
“Can you imagine a BMW or a Boeing would locate in a segregated South Carolina? Of course not,” White said. “He freed us all.”
Jackson is just the second Black man to lie in state at the South Carolina Capitol. State Sen. Clementa Pinckney was honored in 2015 after he was shot and killed in the Charleston church shooting that led to the removal of the Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds.
Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.
People gather inside the South Carolina Statehouse as the Rev. Jesse Jackson lies in state Monday, March 2, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley, Pool)
People pay their respects to the Rev. Jesse Jackson inside the South Carolina Statehouse as he lies in state Monday, March 2, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley, Pool)
Santita Jackson, third from left, Jesse Jackson Jr., center, and Andrew Young, right, gather with others inside the South Carolina Statehouse as the Rev. Jesse Jackson lies in state Monday, March 2, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley, Pool)
Rev. Reginald Sharpe speaks to people inside the South Carolina Statehouse as the Rev. Jesse Jackson lies in state Monday, March 2, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley, Pool)
Jesse Jackson Jr., center, arrives at the South Carolina Statehouse, where his father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, will lie in state Monday, March 2, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley, Pool)
People gather inside the South Carolina Statehouse as the Rev. Jesse Jackson lies in state Monday, March 2, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley, Pool)
The casket of the Rev. Jesse Jackson is carried to the South Carolina Statehouse, where he will lie in state, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley, Pool)
The casket of the Rev. Jesse Jackson arrives for public visitation at Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters in Chicago, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
FILE - Jesse Jackson is joined by his daughter, Santita, and son Jonathan, far right, and unidentified youngster at the Los Angeles Hilton Hotel, June 8, 1988 after falling in defeat to Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis in the California Democratic primary. (AP Photo/John Duricka, File)
