Netanyahu orders new West Bank settler outposts

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today ordered the establishment of new settler outposts in the occupied West Bank, in a retaliatory move after a confrontation left four Palestinians and two Israelis dead.

Violence erupted near the settlement of Havat Gilad and the neighbouring Palestinian village of Tell, which lies in territory Israel occupied in 1967.

Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank which has a Palestinian population of around three million.

Violence in the West Bank has surged since the Gaza war began with Hamas's 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel.

Mr Netanyahu has vowed to "act with full force against the terrorists and those who orchestrate and sponsor them".

He announced a series of steps including raids in Palestinian villages suspected of hosting militants and "accelerating the legalisation of farm outposts and establishment of new ones" in the West Bank.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, while outposts are small settlements established usually without government approval and therefore illegal under Israeli law.

They are usually on hilltops, often composed of a few mobile homes set up overnight by small groups of settlers, with the aim of eventually being recognised as a proper settlement.

There were attacks on Havat Gilad last weekend.

According to Walid Zidan, head of the Tell village council, today's clashes began when a group of about 20 settlers entered the village.

"Villagers came out to defend their homes and property. Clashes and physical altercations broke out between the residents and the settlers," Mr Zidan told AFP.

"Israeli soldiers were present and together with the settlers began opening fire ... it was the settlers who stormed the village, with the intention of killing, vandalising and setting property on fire."

Arrests

The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry reported four Palestinians killed and four others wounded in the incident.

Grieving Palestinian relatives gathered at two hospitals in the nearby city of Nablus, where the victims' bodies were taken, an AFP journalist reported.

Shortly after, Israeli troops came to a hospital to take away a man who had been injured during the clash, as well as his brother.

The AFP journalist at the scene saw troops taking at least one handcuffed man from the hospital.

The military said troops arrested two men who had taken part in the clashes from the Nablus hospital.

The military said there was a violent confrontation between dozens of Palestinians and Israeli civilians in Tell Friday.

An emergency response security team from Havat Gilad was called to the scene along with soldiers, a military official said.

"During the confrontation, shots were fired on both sides and a weapon belonging to a member of the emergency response security team was stolen by a Palestinian terrorist," the official said.

"One member of the security team was killed during the incident and additional security members were injured," he said.

The clashes in Tell subsequently died down, he said.

'Extensive' operation

Israel's Magen David Adom emergency service said a man in his thirties was pronounced dead near Havat Gilad.

Two other people, in their twenties, were evacuated by helicopter with gunshot wounds, one of them in a serious condition.

The military later said another Israeli, an officer, was also killed in the violence.

AFP journalists were unable to reach the site of the violence as Israeli forces had set up roadblocks across the area.

The Israeli military said it was preparing to launch an "extensive counterterrorism operational activity" in the West Bank, adding it had postponed soldiers' leave in the territory.

"We are pursuing every terrorist involved in the attack," military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said as he visited Tell, according to a statement.

Palestinians reported other bouts of violence involving settlers in the north of the West Bank.

In one such incident, settlers attacked the village of Farata, also near Havat Gilad, according to Abdel Moneim Shanneh, head of the local council.

"The settlers set fire to the olive groves... The army prevented young men from the village from extinguishing fires and opened fire on them," he said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams transported eight individuals injured in the attack, including six with live bullet wounds.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that two men were injured during another attack by settlers in the village of Sarra, also near Nablus.

Israeli figures show that at least 48 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations since the start of the Gaza war.

According to an AFP tally based on data from the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,094 Palestinians, including both militants and civilians, over the same period.