Palestinians in tears near the bodies of their victims during their funerals, killed in a deadly shooting according to Israeli and Palestinian health authorities, near the village of Tell, in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, on July 25, 2026. (Credit: Mohammed Torokman/Reuters)
Palestinians from the village of Tell, in the northern occupied West Bank, on Saturday buried four men killed the previous day in clashes with Israeli settlers, local authorities said.
’’The families of the four martyrs held a funeral ceremony early this morning,’’ Walid Zidan, head of the village council, told AFP, adding that ‘’only about 30 people were able to attend’’ because of army restrictions.
Violence has intensified in the West Bank since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel, with near-daily settler attacks on Palestinians. On Friday, clashes erupted after about 20 settlers from the nearby Havat Gilad outpost entered the village, according to Zidan.
According to the Israeli army, whose soldiers were dispatched to the scene, a Palestinian seized the weapon of one of the settlers and killed him. Shots were exchanged ‘’from both sides,’’ killing the four Palestinians and a second Israeli. Israel then announced a ‘’large-scale operation,’’ shutting down the area and closing roadblocks throughout the West Bank, according to AFP journalists.
The army was still deployed in the village Saturday morning, according to the Palestinian official, who reported the arrest of 51 residents for questioning, only six of whom have been released so far.
Ghassan Daghlas, governor of the Nablus region where Tell is located, attended the funerals. A photo published on Facebook by his office shows the bodies of the four deceased Palestinians wrapped in Palestinian flags.
After what he called a ‘’murderous attack,’’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to act ‘’with determination’’ and announced ‘’the acceleration of the legalization of outposts.’’
Outposts, settlements often consisting of a few caravans or prefabricated structures built without official government authorization, are intended to create facts on the ground. Around 500,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, which are considered illegal under international law, alongside about 3 million Palestinians. Settlement activity in the Palestinian territory has accelerated markedly since a far-right coalition took power at the end of 2022.
