Settlers who clashed with Palestinian residents in the West Bank village of Tel last month were in the area “without the required co-ordination and approval from the security authorities”, according to an Israeli military investigation report released on Wednesday, which also did not rule out that the death of one of two soldiers killed might have been caused by friendly fire.
Many Israeli politicians labelled the July 24 incident, in which four villagers from the same family were also killed, as a terror attack, whereas Palestinian witnesses and officials said the residents were forced to defend themselves against armed intruders, in an area where settler violence has surged.
Walid Zidan, the head of the village council, told AFP shortly after the attack that about 20 settlers entered the village in the morning and residents “came out to defend their homes and property”. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called the events a “massacre committed by settlers in partnership with the occupation forces”. One of the two Israeli soldiers killed was from the security squad of a nearby settlement.
The investigation report said the army “linked up” with the group of settlers, which was “spread across a wide area”, after a report that “individuals had been identified throwing stones”. It added that the “military force that arrived at the scene was too small relative to the scale of the violent incident” and that “other soldiers operating in the area did not act optimally”.
The area around Tel, south of the Palestinian city of Nablus, is a hotspot in the surge of settler and Israeli military violence that has swept the occupied West Bank since the deadly October 7, 2023 raids on Israel by Hamas that triggered the war in Gaza.
Settlers frequently enter Palestinian towns and villages to attack residents and vandalise property. Israel’s military rarely intervenes against Israeli attackers, and soldiers, some of whom come from nearby settlements, have participated in the violence.
Following the clash in Tel, settlers began a wave of attacks across the occupied West Bank, alongside a major Israeli military operation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for action to be taken against the residents of Tel and for the construction and legalisation of more settlements.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the village of Tel should look like refugee camps that have been destroyed by Israeli forces. Israel’s opposition also labelled the clash as a terror attack. Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who used to lead an umbrella group representing settlements, said the two Israelis were “murdered in a terrorist attack”.
Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats party and a former general, who is considered left-wing in Israel, said “terror must be struck with a harsh military hand, with determination and without compromise”.
Since the killings, Israel has announced more funding for settlements, including a package on Tuesday that allocates more than $50 million to Israel’s Settlements Ministry.
Israel's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a temporary freeze of the transfer, which was approved as part of a larger package, to examine whether there might have been procedural flaws in the allocations.
