By Staff, Agencies

The “Israeli” Occupation Forces [IOF] said Friday that an unarmed Palestinian man was shot and killed in an occupied West Bank settlement after he tried to break into a home and fought with a guard.

The IOF referred to the incident as a "terror attack," but a spokesman was unable to explain how it came to that conclusion, given that no weapons were found on the suspect or in his car. The IOF said the suspect fought with a guard, who was also unarmed, before being shot and killed by another guard and a third individual.

It said the incident took place in "Sde Efraim farm," which does not appear on maps and is likely one of several small outposts set up by “Israeli” settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Radi Abu Fkheideh, the head of the local council in the nearby Palestinian village of Ras Karkar, identified the deceased as Khaled Nofal, 34, the married father of a four-year-old boy. He said the IOF stormed Nofal's home in the village early Friday and arrested his father. He had no information about the circumstances of Nofal's death.

There have been a series of stabbings, shootings and car-ramming operations against “Israelis” in recent years, mostly carried out by lone Palestinians.

The Palestinians view all the settlements as illegal, a position with wide international support.