RAMALLAH, Palestine (Alliance News, July 25): Four Palestinians were laid to rest on Saturday in the occupied West Bank village of Tell after they were killed during a violent confrontation with Israeli settlers, local officials said.
According to the head of the Tell village council, Walid Zidan, the funeral was held shortly after midnight under heavy Israeli military restrictions, allowing only around 30 mourners to attend. He said Israeli forces remained deployed in the village, detaining 51 residents for questioning, while only six had been released by Saturday morning.
The violence erupted on Friday when around 20 Israeli settlers from a nearby settlement entered Tell, triggering clashes with Palestinian residents who were defending their property. According to the Israeli military, a Palestinian resident seized a settler’s firearm and fatally shot one Israeli. A settlement emergency response team then arrived, and the ensuing exchange of gunfire left four Palestinians and another Israeli dead.
Israeli security forces subsequently closed checkpoints and access routes across the West Bank, significantly restricting movement, according to AFP journalists.
Officials from the Nablus Governorate joined funeral prayers at a local hospital before the bodies, wrapped in Palestinian flags, were taken to Tell for burial. Family members and residents gathered to pay their final respects.
Ahmed Ramadan, the father of one of the deceased, said he learned of the deaths only after arriving at the hospital, where he discovered that his son and three close relatives had been killed.
Another Tell resident, Ismail al-Saifi, said repeated settler incursions into the village had prompted residents to confront the attackers in an effort to protect their homes and land.
Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has intensified since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and the expansion of Israeli settlements—considered illegal under international law—has continued in recent years.
More than 500,000 Israeli settlers currently live in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, alongside approximately three million Palestinians.
According to Israeli authorities, at least 48 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during military operations since the Gaza conflict began. Palestinian health ministry figures cited by AFP indicate that at least 1,094 Palestinians, including civilians and militants, have been killed in the West Bank during the same period.
