Jerusalem.- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised this Friday a “forceful action” against the Palestinian village of Tell and its neighboring municipalities, after a shooting occurred there hours earlier in which four Palestinians and one Israeli settler died.
Netanyahu met with his cabinet—including Defense Minister Israel Katz—and instructed the Israeli military (IDF) to further toughen its policies against villages he defined as “hotbeds of terrorism.”
There, they will supposedly carry out operations for the “confiscation of weapons” and revoke their work permits to operate in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, something that was already happening after the brutal Hamas attacks of October 7, and during these more than 2 years of what an independent UN committee of experts considers Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.
In the village of Tell, in the Nablus Governorate (occupied West Bank), a shooting occurred this morning in which, in the presence of the Israeli Army, four Palestinians and one Israeli were killed. The incident took place near the Havat Gilad ‘outpost’ (the beginning of an Israeli settler settlement), which is considered illegal under international law.
According to the IDF, several Palestinians stole the weapon of a “security guard” who arrived at the scene after receiving a report of an alleged attack on settlers while they were hiking in the area, and who fired at Israeli civilians before the four Palestinians were shot dead.
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This contrasts with the version from the Palestinian authorities, which indicate that before the arrival of the IDF, Israeli settlers “attacked Palestinian homes in Tell and opened fire on them,” and that one of the Palestinians killed snatched the weapon from the “security guard” (a settler with a weapon authorized to “provide security” to his settlement) once he saw two of his relatives shot dead by the Army.
Since the shooting occurred this morning, as a form of retaliation, groups of dozens of radical Jewish settlers have been assaulting nearby Palestinian villages, attacking the local population, vandalizing and setting fire to properties, destroying cars, and, in short, causing chaos in the area.
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Intense deployment of the Israeli Army
Meanwhile, the Israeli Army—which has not reported any arrests for these actions—has already carried out an intense deployment for a Palestinian “counter-terrorism operation,” and local activist groups report that not even ambulances are being allowed access to the area to attend to wounded Palestinians.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, eight injuries were reported resulting from settler attacks against the village of Farata, near Qalqilya: six injured by live ammunition, one injured in the head by a stone, and one injured by a rubber-coated bullet.
In that context, Netanyahu also announced today the demolition of the Palestinian “terrorist’s” house from Tell, the reinforcement of units in the occupied West Bank, and the “regulatory acceleration of Israeli agricultural farms”; that is, settler outposts in occupied Palestinian territory in the process of being officially established as settlements with access to basic supplies.
“The Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense emphasize that security forces must be allowed to act with freedom and with all necessary force against terrorism,” concludes the statement released by Netanyahu’s office.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 82 Palestinians have died in the occupied West Bank governorates since the beginning of this year, 21 of them at the hands of Israeli settlers.
Since October 7, 2023, more than a thousand Palestinians have died from fire by the Israeli Army or settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Likewise, daily attacks are carried out against Palestinian land and homes, with vandalism of their property, slaughtered livestock, and mosques set on fire by Israeli settlers.
