Four Palestinians and one Israeli settler have been killed in a shooting in the northern West Bank, health officials have said, during what residents described as a settler attack also involving the Israeli military. Several more people were seriously injured.
Deadliest attack this year
The serious incident in the Palestinian village of Tell, near Nablus, is the deadliest attack in the West Bank this year and has the potential to lead to a series of reprisals between Israeli-backed settlers and Palestinian communities.
The Israeli military announced it was preparing for an “extensive” counterterror operation in the West Bank, with troops surrounding the town of Nablus.
“The security forces must be allowed to act freely and with full force against terrorism,” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a joint statement with defence minister Israel Katz. They called Friday for more troops to the West Bank and the razing of the homes of the accused in Tell as well as collecting weapons and revoking work permits in the village.
Residents describe settler incursion
A Palestinian resident of the village said Israeli settlers had come to the village early on Friday morning and that they were soon joined by the military. The Israeli military said in its statement it had come to the aid of Israeli hikers.
Walid Zidan, the head of Tel village council, told Agence France-Presse that about 20 Israeli settlers had entered the village at about 8.30am 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.
Condemnation and response
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”.
The circumstances of the shooting were not immediately clear, but video of the attack posted online has shown several people who appear to be Palestinians on the ground in a field near the village who appear to have been shot.
The Israeli military said it had deployed soldiers after reports of an attack against Israeli civilians who were hiking near Havat Gilad, a West Bank settlement near Tell. According to the military, the attackers seized the weapon of a member of the security forces at the scene and opened fire.
Victims and aftermath
The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said the four Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces. All four were from the same family and have the same last name, according to people from the village.
The Israeli was named as Benayahu Mellet, 32, of the Havat Gilad settlement.
Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has flared in recent days and Israeli settlers have called for a wave of attacks to “erase” the village.
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. All Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.
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.
