ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that his government ordered the establishment of new settlements in the occupied West Bank and reinforced the area with troops previously deployed in Gaza and Lebanon, coming amid clashes that left four Palestinians and two Israelis dead.

“Just as we established 104 new settlements and regulated 160 farms, we will continue to strengthen the settlement, to establish more settlements, to regulate more farms as part of the State of Israel's security concept,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X.

Netanyahu announced on Friday a series of new measures that include the confiscation of weapons, the revocation of work permits for Palestinians, the reinforcement of Israeli forces across the occupied West Bank, and stricter separation between Israeli and Palestinian traffic through additional checkpoints and road restrictions.

More than 500,000 Israeli settlers now live in communities scattered across the West Bank, territory Israel has occupied since 1967. These settlements are deemed illegal under international law.

An uptick in violence

Violence erupted in the village of Tel, southwest of Nablus, on Friday after dozens of armed settlers entered the area illegally for what they described as a hike. The incursion sparked a confrontation with a group of Palestinians who attempted to expel the settlers from the town.

The Israeli military confirmed the group of settlers failed to coordinate their arrival, a mandatory requirement for Israelis since the village is located within Areas A and B, thus under de jure legal control of the Palestinian Authority, the Times of Israel reported.

Essam Saifi, a local Fatah leader from Tel, told Reuters that around 25 to 30 settlers first attacked the eastern side of the village and attempted to break into two homes. When residents came out to confront them, the settlers opened fire, according to his statement. Roughly half an hour later, he added, the group returned and assaulted the western part of the village, striking a minor with a weapon.

Four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed in the violence.

Following the incident in the village, the military imposed a full closure on Nablus and launched a large-scale operation in the city and nearby villages. A curfew was also imposed on the villages of Burin and Tel, and the army ordered a restriction on soldiers leaving their bases throughout the area where the shooting occurred.

The Israeli army raided Nablus Specialized Hospital on Friday to arrest two Palestinians wounded in the Tel clashes and hand them over to the Shin Bet, with soldiers reportedly assaulting medical personnel and handcuffed doctors and nurses, according to the Palestinian state-run news agency Wafa.

The Palestinian Presidency on Friday condemned "Israeli colonists' terrorism" against the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem.

The Presidency accused the Israeli government of providing “financial and political support” to settlers to escalate their “terror attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, and to implement a plan of forced displacement, while continuing its war against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip despite the announcement of a ceasefire.”

Official complicity

Palestinians and human rights organizations have long accused the Israeli army of turning a blind eye to extremist settlers, if not actively shielding them. Yet there are also increasingly more Israeli voices criticizing settler violence and highlighting the complicity of the Israeli army, which allows them to act with impunity.

In a scathing editorial, the Israeli outlet Ha’aretz argued that such incidents are possible “because the [Israeli military] stands by and does nothing to repress the violence and protect the people under attack.”

The paper reported that among those taking part in some of the raids were armed men in uniform, identified as members of settlement “emergency squads,” who allegedly used the weapons and status provided to them for self‑defense to attack Palestinian.

The Presidency also condemned the decisions taken by Netanyahu and Katz following the escalation in Tel, among “accelerating the establishment and legalization of colonial outposts, reinforcing military forces across the occupied West Bank, intensifying raids, and imposing a siege on Nablus and its surroundings.”

The deepening violence is feeding chronic insecurity and further eroding trust in Palestinian institutions. Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, has reportedly warned that soaring unemployment, collapsing public services, and rising poverty among the roughly 3 million Palestinians living under Israeli military rule in the West Bank since 1967 could trigger a new cycle of unrest and even the collapse of the Palestinian Authority.

 The World Bank estimates that the West Bank economy shrank by about 17 percent in 2024, a dramatic contraction for a territory already under severe constraints.