NABLUS, West Bank — Israel widely deployed troops in the West Bank after clashes broke out Friday across the occupied territory following the killing of an Israeli settler triggered violence that left two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinian villagers dead.
Palestinians in the West Bank have been facing a wave of violence as Israel's hard-line government, dominated by settler leaders and supporters, has overseen a surge in settlement construction over the past four years. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction in these areas to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.
4 Palestinians and 2 Israelis killed as fear of violence escalates
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli soldiers shot and killed four Palestinians in the village of Tell in the northern West Bank while the military reported the deaths of two soldiers, one of whom was a settler in a local defense squad.
Two other Israelis and four more Palestinians were wounded, health officials said, and the Israeli military announced it was preparing for an “extensive” counterterror operation in the West Bank. It said it conducting a manhunt for Palestinians suspected of attacking Israelis and that it had apprehended two during a raid in Nablus.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a joint statement with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, 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.
“The security forces must be allowed to act freely and with full force against terrorism,” they said.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich went farther, saying that 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.
“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.”
Human rights group B’Tselem warned the violence could spin out of control as Israeli settlers and soldiers amass near multiple Palestinian cities.
“Israeli violence is spreading across the West Bank, fueled by Israeli politicians openly calling for revenge,” said Yuli Novak, the group’s executive director. "We know where this leads. Millions of Palestinians are now completely exposed to further attacks, with no one protecting them.”
An unclear confrontation at the center of the tension
The exact circumstances of Friday’s incident remained unclear, but Israeli media reports and interviews with local Palestinian officials suggested a group of settlers entered Tell and were confronted by residents who were fearful of an attack.
The village is off-limits to Israelis as part of Area B under the 1993 Oslo Accords struck after the first Palestinian Intifada.
According to the Israeli military, one of the villagers took one of the settlers’ weapons and fired on the group, killing Benayahu Mellet, 32, a security guard in a settlement nearby.
In a video of the incident, confirmed by the Israeli military and circulated online by the military correspondent for Israel’s Army Radio, two armed men in civilian clothing, as well as at least one Israeli soldier, are shown pointing their weapons at a group of Palestinians who had gathered in a field.
At one point, the two armed men rushed toward several Palestinian residents with their guns drawn. In the footage, the residents try to push them back and appear to disarm one of the men before opening fire.
In a statement, the Israeli military said it killed the man who took the settler’s weapon and that he was armed when soldiers shot him. But a separate video, published by Israeli media outlets and confirmed by the military, showed Israeli forces firing on a group of Palestinians in the same field who were already on the ground.
More than a dozen gunshots can be heard in the footage, which is less than a minute long. The military said the suspect was one of the people killed in the field. It did not respond to questions about why soldiers killed the other men — all of whom were related — or how long after the original altercation the killings took place.
Later, army chief Eyal Zamir said he was sending more troops to the occupied West Bank.
Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, a settler group in the northern West Bank, posted a video online in the wake of the Tell confrontation demanding the government crack down hard on Palestinians.
“We demand an iron fist and for the government to carry out a wide military operation against the Palestinian Authority and against Hamas,” he said.
Settlers have long targeted villages in the northern West Bank
Five Palestinian villages surrounding Nablus were attacked by Israeli settlers on Friday, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
The towns and villages surrounding Nablus sit in one of the most violent parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In addition to newly approved settlements, at least nine farming outposts dot the area and attacks by Israeli settlers, army incursions and confrontations have become frequent.
Palestinians and human rights groups have increasingly documented armed settlers entering villages in the area. Livestock theft, arson and the defacement of mosques are routinely reported.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, since the beginning of this year, 87 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank governorates, including 21 by Israeli settlers.
Israeli deaths have repeatedly been followed by revenge against nearby Palestinian communities called “price tag” attacks.
That pattern followed the March 21 death of 18-year-old Yehuda Sherman, who was killed when a Palestinian vehicle struck his ATV near Beit Imrin. Senior politicians, including Smotrich, attended Sherman’s funeral and called for vengeance.
At the time, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs documented 32 settler attacks affecting 30 Palestinian villages and communities across the West Bank, about a third near Nablus governorate over the following two days. Settlers torched homes and vehicles, vandalized property and assaulted residents, injuring at least 32 Palestinians, according to OCHA.
More than 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for an independent state along with the Gaza Strip.
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McNeil reported from Brussels, Bwaitel from Ramallah and Cunningham from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Ramallah contributed to this report.
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