Israeli forces closed the village off after the incident in which four Palestinians were killed [Getty]
Four Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank village of Tell on Friday in what Palestinian authorities described as a “massacre” carried out by Israeli settlers “in coordination with occupation forces”, prompting calls for international intervention and accountability.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Israeli authorities of enabling settler violence through “protection, impunity, and official incitement”, saying armed settlers attacked the village before Israeli forces joined the assault, killing four Palestinians and wounding several others.
Israeli authorities said one Israeli was also killed during the incident.
What happened in Tell?
According to the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, armed Israeli settlers entered Tell, west of Nablus, and opened fire on residents before Israeli forces intervened alongside them. The ministry said four Palestinians, including two brothers, were killed and several others wounded, some critically.
The ministry condemned what it described as a “massacre” and said the attack formed part of a wider policy of “annexation and ethnic cleansing”.
It urged the international community to impose sanctions on Israel’s settlement enterprise and pursue legal accountability for those responsible.
Essam Saifi, a Fatah official from Tell, told Reuters that around 25 to 30 settlers entered the eastern side of the village and attempted to break into homes, prompting residents to confront them.
Saifi said settlers opened fire before later returning to another part of the village, where they assaulted a minor. He said Israeli soldiers then arrived and began shooting alongside the settlers.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that footage from the incident appeared to show an armed Israeli standing near soldiers who did not appear to detain him, raising further questions about the conduct of security forces during the violence.
The Associated Press noted that it remained unclear who killed the Israeli man.
Rights group Adalah said the killings reflected a broader pattern of state-backed settler violence and institutional impunity in the occupied West Bank.
“Today’s horrific incident is part of a rapidly escalating wave of state-backed settler attacks across the West Bank,” Adalah attorney Hadeel Abu Salih said to The New Arab.
“This violence does not occur in a vacuum; it is deeply rooted in a systemic culture of impunity for the killing and injury of Palestinians.”
Abu Salih said Adalah’s legal work had repeatedly exposed what she described as “the direct collusion between state forces and settlers”.
She cited cases in which Palestinian victims were arrested while armed settlers avoided accountability, arguing that the justice system had consistently failed to prosecute settler violence.
“It is evident that police systematically fail to investigate or prosecute acts of settler terror, while armed forces operate under an unwritten shoot-to-kill policy even when it becomes clear no life-threatening justification exists,” she said.
Abu Salih added that closures had already been imposed on Palestinian villages following Friday’s incident, alongside further settler attacks and “explicit incitement to commit crimes against Palestinians from high-ranking government officials advocating for widespread destruction and displacement”.
Political fallout
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency security consultation with Defence Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir following the incident, with fears that Israel could use the incident to collectively punish civilians in the Palestinian village.
“We will respond with force against the terrorists and those who send them, and we will not allow terror to raise its head in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said, using the Israeli government’s preferred term for the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military said it had deployed five additional companies to the West Bank, imposed closures on Tell and the nearby city of Nablus, and was preparing what it described as “extensive counterterrorism operational activity” in the area. It also postponed soldiers’ leave across the territory as additional forces were deployed.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank to meet the “same fate” as the destroyed town of Beit Hanoun in Gaza, saying he would demand that the military demolish the homes of “terrorists and their supporters”.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also called for a military attack, urging the army to take “strong action” against Tell and the surrounding area.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry reiterated its call for international action, urging states to impose sanctions on settlements, ban settlement goods from international markets and pursue legal action against those responsible for what it described as the “massacre”.
The incident comes amid escalating settler violence across the occupied West Bank, where rights organisations have repeatedly warned of attacks on Palestinian communities and a growing climate of impunity.
