Four Palestinian villagers were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in Tell, a village in the northern occupied West Bank, following clashes that erupted across the territory on Friday. The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the deaths, which occurred after an Israeli settler was killed in the same area. The violence also left two Israeli soldiers dead, one of whom was a settler in a local defense squad, according to military reports.
Two other Israelis and four more Palestinians sustained injuries during the widespread confrontations. The Israeli military announced preparations for an “extensive” counterterror operation across the West Bank. They're actively conducting a manhunt for Palestinians suspected of attacking Israelis, apprehending two individuals during a raid in Nablus.
Escalating Colonial Violence
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, alongside Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, immediately called for increased troop deployment in the West Bank. They demanded the razing of homes belonging to those accused in Tell, the confiscation of weapons, and the revocation of work permits for villagers. “The security forces must be allowed to act freely and with full force against terrorism,” their joint statement declared.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich went further, advocating for the villages of Tell, Iraq Burin, and Beit Furik to be made to “look exactly like the refugee camps in Nablus and Tulkarm.” This statement referenced a mass demolition campaign last year that displaced tens of thousands in those West Bank towns. Smotrich asserted, “It is necessary to evacuate the population there for their protection and to clear these villages of terrorist infrastructure.” He concluded, “A sharp, determined, and unequivocal military action is required here and now.”
The exact sequence of events on Friday remains contested. Israeli media reports and local Palestinian officials indicated that a group of settlers entered Tell, a village designated as off-limits to Israelis under Area B of the 1993 Oslo Accords, struck 33 years ago. Residents confronted the settlers, fearing an attack. The Israeli military stated that one villager took a settler’s weapon and fired on the group, killing Benayahu Mellet, 32, a security guard from a nearby illegal settlement.
A video, confirmed by the Israeli military and circulated by Israel’s Army Radio, showed two armed men in civilian clothing and at least one Israeli soldier pointing weapons at a group of Palestinians in a field. The footage captured the armed men rushing toward residents, who attempted to push them back and appeared to disarm one before opening fire. The Israeli military claimed it killed the man who took the settler’s weapon, stating he was armed when shot.
However, a separate video, also confirmed by the military and published by Israeli media, depicted Israeli forces firing on a group of Palestinians already on the ground in the same field. More than a dozen gunshots are audible in the short footage. The military identified the suspect as one of the people killed in the field but did not address questions regarding why soldiers killed the other men, all of whom were related, or how long after the initial altercation the killings occurred. Army chief Eyal Zamir later confirmed sending more troops to the occupied West Bank.
Systematic Dispossession and Apartheid
Five Palestinian villages surrounding Nablus were subjected to attacks by Israeli settlers on Friday, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA. The Nablus area is recognized as one of the most violent parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. This region is dotted with newly approved illegal settlements and at least nine farming outposts. Attacks by Israeli settlers, military incursions, and confrontations have become a frequent occurrence.
Palestinians and human rights organizations have increasingly documented armed settlers entering villages in the area. Reports routinely detail livestock theft, arson, and the defacement of mosques. The Palestinian Health Ministry reports that 87 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank governorates since the beginning of this year, with 21 of those deaths attributed to Israeli settlers. Israeli deaths are consistently followed by retaliatory “price tag” attacks against nearby Palestinian communities.
This pattern was evident after the March 21 death of 18-year-old Yehuda Sherman, who was killed when a Palestinian vehicle struck his ATV near Beit Imrin earlier this year. Senior politicians, including Smotrich, attended Sherman’s funeral and openly called for vengeance. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) documented 32 settler attacks affecting 30 Palestinian villages and communities across the West Bank in the two days following Sherman’s death, with approximately a third occurring near Nablus governorate. Settlers torched homes and vehicles, vandalized property, and assaulted residents, injuring at least 32 Palestinians, OCHA reported. Over 700,000 Israelis reside in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories seized by Israel 59 years ago and sought by Palestinians for an independent state alongside the Gaza Strip.
Human rights group B’Tselem warned that the escalating violence could spiral out of control. “Israeli violence is spreading across the West Bank, fueled by Israeli politicians openly calling for revenge,” stated Yuli Novak, the group’s executive director. “We know where this leads. Millions of Palestinians are now completely exposed to further attacks, with no one protecting them.” Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, an illegal settler group in the northern West Bank, posted a video demanding the government implement an “iron fist” and carry out a “wide military operation against the Palestinian Authority and against Hamas.”