Two attacks by Israeli settlers on the village of Tal, near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, left four Palestinians and two Israelis dead on 24 July 2026. What followed was retaliatory settler raids on neighbouring villages, the redeployment of five army battalions, and calls by Israeli ministers to destroy Palestinian homes and villages.
Two raids, 30 minutes apart
Between 6:10am and 6:45am, 40 to 50 settlers, some of them children, approached Tal from the east, threw stones at four or five Palestinian homes and tried to force their way in, according to witnesses. An armed settler shot and wounded a Palestinian man; the settlers left once other Palestinians arrived.
Half an hour later the same group re-entered from the south-west, accompanied by Israeli soldiers. A local resident who saw both incidents said settlers attacked Palestinians while soldiers stood by, and that the army intervened only after a Palestinian man seized a settler’s weapon and opened fire. Soldiers shot that man dead at close range, and settlers and soldiers then fired on three other unarmed Palestinians, the resident said. Two videos, verified and geolocated by rights researchers, match that account.
The four Palestinians killed were two brothers and two of their cousins, from the Ramadan family. The Israeli military said troops were sent after a report of an attack on Israeli civilians and that a platoon commander shot the armed Palestinian; it gave no account of the other three deaths. The Israelis killed were Major Yuval Ezra, 27, an active-duty officer, and Binyahu Millet, 32, who headed the civil defence squad in the settlement of Havat Gilad — one of the armed units the Ministry of National Security set up in settlements after 7 October 2023 with policing powers.
The response
Netanyahu convened an emergency security meeting and instructed the army to carry out an intensive counterterrorism operation. Settlers attacked nearby villages in the hours that followed, causing injuries, fires and property damage, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for a settlement at the Sela outpost site near the scene, and for the area to be moved from Area B to Area C, under full Israeli control. He said Palestinian villages should be left looking like the Nablus and Tulkarem refugee camps, destroyed by an Israeli operation in January 2025. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir wrote on X that for every Jew killed, the enemy should lose land and homes.
The numbers
The killings brought the Palestinian death toll in the West Bank since 19 July to 10. As of that date, the UN humanitarian affairs office had recorded 68 Palestinians killed there in 2026, at least 13 by settlers, and 20 Israelis injured as of 15 July.
Tal lies in Area B, under joint Israeli-Palestinian security control. In July 2024, the International Court of Justice found Israel obliged to evacuate all settlers from the West Bank, let displaced Palestinians return and compensate them.
This report was produced by the HuMedia newsroom.
