Palestine weekly: West Bank in flames after Tal killings

What the report says

Al Jazeera reported that violence spread across the occupied West Bank after a deadly confrontation on July 24 in Tal, southwest of Nablus. According to the outlet, more than 20 Israeli settlers from the Havat Gilad settlement attacked Palestinian homes, were initially pushed back by residents, and then returned with Israeli soldiers. Videos cited by Al Jazeera appeared to show a Palestinian man taking a settler’s rifle and killing him before being shot dead by soldiers. Four Palestinians from the Ramadan family were killed, along with a settler and an Israeli soldier.

In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a broad military operation, including reinforcement of army units, demolition of the alleged attacker’s home, revocation of some work permits and faster “regularisation” of settlement farms and outposts, Al Jazeera said. The report cited Israeli public radio as saying 26 army battalions were deployed across the West Bank by the weekend. Raids and arrests followed in Tal and across areas including Jenin, Tubas, Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem, Tulkarem and occupied East Jerusalem.

Al Jazeera also described a wave of settler attacks, arson and movement restrictions. It cited reports of homes and vehicles burned in Sarra, property and farmland set alight in Farata, mosques torched or defaced in Qusra and near Tulkarem, and road closures and checkpoints that disrupted travel and ambulance access. The outlet said four new settlement outposts appeared near Tal and nearby villages after the killings.

The article placed the escalation in the context of rising West Bank settler violence and Israeli settlement expansion. It also included a separate update from Gaza, where the Hamas-run Health Ministry’s death toll since an October 2025 ceasefire had reached 1,203, according to Al Jazeera.