Four Palestinians and two Israelis were killed Friday morning after hundreds of illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers invaded the Palestinian village of Tell, southwest of Nablus, firing live rounds at homes and civilians and triggering heavy confrontations.
During the assault, a Palestinian resident seized the weapon of an armed colonizer near the illegal Havat Gilad outpost and opened fire, killing two Israelis and injuring others, prompting Israeli occupation forces to storm the village, kill four Palestinians, wound several more, and impose a full military closure on the area.
Local sources said armed colonizer gangs launched a coordinated attack at dawn on the outskirts of Tell, shooting at Palestinian homes and attempting to push deeper into the village. Residents confronted the attackers, and video clips circulated by activists documented the moment a Palestinian gained control of a colonizer’s weapon before firing toward the invading groups and occupation soldiers — a development many Palestinians viewed as a significant shift in confronting settler violence.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that Israeli forces killed Farouq Adnan Ali Ramadan, Ibrahim Hussein Ali Ramadan, Jawad Hussein Ali Ramadan, and Omran Ahmad Ali Ramadan during the assault. Four others were wounded, three critically, as occupation troops continued firing live rounds and blocked ambulances from reaching parts of the village. Meanwhile, colonizer groups set fire to homes, farms, and vehicles in widespread revenge attacks across Palestinian areas following the deaths of the two Israelis.
Israeli media identified the two Israelis killed during the invasion as Master Sergeant (res.) Benayahu Mellet, 32, and Major Yuval Ezra, 27, the battery commander of the 411th Battalion in the 282nd Artillery Brigade. Both were part of the armed colonizer group that stormed the village.
The invasion came shortly after Israeli ministers publicly called for Israeli militia groups to invade and destroy Palestinian villages. According to Quds News, senior Israeli officials and settler leaders demanded mass destruction and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank, framing the attack on Tell as part of a broader campaign to impose new realities on the ground.
The events in Tell unfold amid an unprecedented escalation in settler violence across the West Bank, often carried out under the protection or direct participation of the occupation army. These assaults include invading villages, burning homes and farms, attacking Palestinians, and expanding colonial outposts as part of a policy aimed at tightening control over Palestinian land and displacing its residents.
Following the confrontations, towns and cities across the West Bank witnessed a wide state of alert, while popular and factional calls urged escalating resistance and direct engagement with occupation forces and colonizers. Palestinian groups argued that the continuous settler assaults require a field response capable of protecting residents and halting the expansion of colonial outposts.
Hamas stated that the events in Tell reflect the Palestinians’ right to defend themselves against settler attacks, stressing that the crimes committed by the occupation and its colonizers will not pass without a response, and that resistance in the West Bank continues to rise despite intensified military and security measures. Islamic Jihad said the residents’ confrontation of the settler attack demonstrates the occupation’s failure to break the will of the Palestinian people, calling for unified efforts to expand engagement with occupation forces and colonizers across the West Bank.
The Palestinian Presidency and Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned of escalating settler terrorism and held the occupation government fully responsible for the crimes committed against Palestinians, affirming that providing military protection to colonizers constitutes direct partnership in the assaults targeting Palestinian villages and towns.
The occupation army imposed a closure on Nablus and a full curfew on Tell and Burin, announcing preparations for an extensive military operation. Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to act with “full force,” and the army’s chief of staff ordered additional troops into the area. Occupation forces also invaded the Nablus Specialized Hospital, assaulting medical staff and detaining several Palestinians; images showed soldiers forcing staff and patients to lie on the floor.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich responded by calling for the destruction and emptying of three Palestinian villages, as settler attacks and military operations continue to escalate across the occupied West Bank, resulting in the killing and injury of hundreds in recent months amid warnings of attempts to impose new facts on the ground through intensified settlement expansion and organized violence against Palestinians.
