Israel has said it is preparing a major military operation in the West Bank after four Palestinians and two Israelis were killed during a confrontation that began after armed settlers entered a Palestinian village with support from the Israeli military.
Several more people were seriously injured at the scene after a scuffle broke out over an Israeli settler’s weapon and the military opened fire, according to residents. Dozens more have been reported wounded in ensuing settler attacks on neighbouring Palestinian towns.
The shooting in the Palestinian village of Tell, near Nablus, is the deadliest attack in the West Bank this year and during the reprisals on nearby Palestinian towns, settlers set fire to houses and attacked local people. At least eight more Palestinians had reportedly been hospitalised, most with gunshot wounds.
The Israeli military announced it was preparing for an “extensive” operation in the West Bank, with troops surrounding the town of Nablus and reports of security forces entering the hospital to arrest those wounded in the violence.
The military said it planned to apprehend “dozens of Palestinians” involved in the incident, which it said it was treating as a terrorist attack, although video from the scene indicated the clash was not premeditated and involved a struggle over a weapon held by an armed settler.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Israel Katz, said in a statement: “The security forces must be allowed to act freely and with full force against terrorism.” They called for more troops in the West Bank and the razing of the homes of the accused in Tell, as well as the collection of weapons and revoking of work permits in the village.
Netanyahu also called for the building of new settlement outposts in the area and the legalisation of existing outposts. Unauthorised settlements are illegal under Israeli law.
The head of Israel’s Democrats party, Yair Golan, said Netanyahu and Katz’s response showed a “clear intent to set the area ablaze”. The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned what it described as a “massacre committed by settlers in partnership with the occupation forces in the village of Tell”.
Walid Zidan, the head of Tel village council, told Agence France-Presse that about ۲۰ Israeli settlers had entered the village at about ۸.۳۰am local time. “Villagers came out to defend their homes and property. Clashes and physical altercations broke out between the residents and the settlers,” Zidan said.
“Israeli soldiers were present and together with the settlers began opening fire … It was the settlers who stormed the village, with the intention of killing, vandalising and setting property on fire,” he said.
Video footage showed an armed settler approaching several Palestinian men near the village and pushing them back with his rifle, after which a scuffle broke out and one of the Palestinian residents reached for the gun. It is unclear who shot the settler, who was named as Benayahu Mellet, ۳۲, a security guard from the nearby Israeli settlement Havat Gilad.
The Israeli military said in its statement it had come to the aid of the settlers, who were taking an “unauthorised and uncoordinated hike” in the village. They claimed that in the struggle over the weapon, a Palestinian resident of the village had taken the rifle and opened fire. The military said Maj Yuval Ezra, ۲۷, a battery commander in an artillery regiment, was also killed in the clash. It was not immediately clear who had shot him.
The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said the four Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces. All four were said to be cousins from the same family and have been named as Farouk, Ibrahim, Jawad and Imran Ramadan.
Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has flared in recent days and Israeli settlers have called for attacks to “erase” Tell.
The far-right and pro-settler Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the villages of Tell, Iraq Burin and Beit Furik “need to look exactly like the refugee camps in Nablus and Tulkarm”, referring to the mass demolition campaign that displaced tens of thousands in the West Bank towns last year.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu’s far-right national security minister, said he would call for the villages in the West Bank to “be treated like Beit Hanoun in Gaza”, which has been devastated in bombing raids, and said he would demand that Israel bomb and bulldoze Palestinian houses.
Israel’s defence and finance ministers recently announced plans for new illegal settlements in Gaza, and the country’s military commander for the region has described violent outposts as his “security partners”.
All Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.
According to UN figures, ۲۳۰ Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers in ۲۰۲۵.
Palestinian health officials said they were treating four injured Palestinians, three in critical condition. Israel’s rescue service said two injured Israelis were airlifted out of the West Bank.
