Israeli military kills 4 Palestinians after settler killed in West Bank
Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinians in the northern occupied West Bank on Friday following a confrontation in which an Israeli settler was killed, as tensions escalated across the territory.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the four men were killed in the village of Tell, near Nablus. Two Israelis and four Palestinians were also wounded in the incident.
In response, the Israeli military announced preparations for an "extensive" counterterrorism operation in the West Bank, with troops deployed around Nablus.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz called for reinforcements and tougher security measures.
"The security forces must be allowed to act freely and with full force against terrorism," they said in a joint statement, calling for additional troops to be deployed, the demolition of the homes of those accused in Tell, the seizure of weapons and the revocation of work permits for residents of the village.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich went further, saying the villages of Tell, Iraq Burin and Beit Furik should "look exactly like the refugee camps in Nablus and Tulkarm", referring to Israel's large-scale demolition campaign in those areas last year.
"It is necessary to evacuate the population there for their protection and to clear these villages of terrorist infrastructure," Smotrich said. "A sharp, determined and unequivocal military action is required here and now."
Settler attacks intensify
According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, Israeli settlers attacked five Palestinian villages around Nablus on Friday.
The area surrounding Nablus has become one of the most volatile parts of the occupied West Bank, where newly approved Israeli settlements and multiple farming outposts have fuelled frequent violence involving settlers, Israeli troops and Palestinians.
Palestinians and human rights organisations have documented repeated incidents of armed settlers entering villages, with reports of livestock theft, arson and vandalism targeting homes and mosques.
Israeli fatalities have often been followed by retaliatory attacks on nearby Palestinian communities, commonly referred to as "price tag" attacks.
Following the death of 18-year-old Israeli Yehuda Sherman on 21 March after a Palestinian vehicle struck his all-terrain vehicle near Beit Imrin, senior Israeli politicians, including Smotrich, attended his funeral and called for revenge.
Over the following two days, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded 32 settler attacks affecting 30 Palestinian communities across the West Bank, around one-third of them in the Nablus governorate.
According to OCHA, settlers set fire to homes and vehicles, vandalised property and assaulted residents, injuring at least 32 Palestinians.
Conflicting accounts of confrontation
The circumstances surrounding Friday's incident remain disputed.
Israeli media reports and Palestinian officials said a group of Israeli settlers entered Tell and were confronted by local residents who feared an attack.
According to the Israeli military, one of the Palestinians seized a settler's weapon and opened fire, killing 32-year-old Benayahu Mellet, a security guard at a nearby Israeli settlement.
Video footage verified by the Israeli military and circulated by Israel's Army Radio showed two armed men in civilian clothes, along with at least one Israeli soldier, pointing weapons at a group of Palestinians gathered in a field.
The footage appears to show the armed civilians rushing towards several Palestinians before the residents push them back, apparently disarm one of them and gunfire erupts.
The Israeli military said it killed the man who seized the settler's weapon and maintained that he was armed when soldiers opened fire.
However, separate footage published by Israeli media and also verified by the military appeared to show Israeli forces firing at a group of Palestinians who were already lying on the ground.
More than a dozen gunshots can be heard in the video, which lasts less than a minute.
The military said the suspected gunman was among those killed but did not explain why the three other men, all relatives of the suspect, were also shot or clarify how much time had elapsed between the initial confrontation and the subsequent killings.
Later on Friday, Israeli army chief Lt Gen Eyal Zamir announced that additional troops would be deployed to the occupied West Bank.