Israeli settlers and IDF troops killed four Palestinians during an attack on a village in the occupied West Bank on Friday, during which a soldier and a settler were also shot dead, Middle East Eye reported.
According to eyewitness accounts cited by MEE, a group of armed settlers stormed homes and farmland on the outskirts of Tel, southwest of Nablus, early in the morning. Residents gathered to repel the attack but the confrontation escalated into physical clashes between unarmed Palestinians on one side and rifle-wielding settlers and Israeli soldiers on the other. Israeli troops and settlement guards then opened fire on a group of Palestinians. The Palestinian health ministry said four men were killed and four others wounded, most of them shot in the upper body. Three of the wounded are in a critical condition.
Not surprisingly, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, both of whom live in West Bank settlements went berserk. “The villages of Tel, Burin and Beit Furik should become like the refugee camps in Nablus and Tulkarm,” Smotrich said, referring to the widespread destruction of the camps by Israeli forces in 2025. Smotrich also said he would ask Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to approve a new settlement near the site of the shooting.
