OCCUPIED WEST BANK – Senior Israeli government officials and settler leaders have publicly called for retaliation against Palestinians, urging the destruction of entire Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank and escalating fears of wider violence amid a surge in attacks by Israeli settlers and occupation forces.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Friday for the destruction of the Palestinian villages of Tell, Iraq Burin, and Beit Furik, saying they “should look exactly like the refugee camps in Nablus and Tulkarm”—a reference to the extensive destruction inflicted by Israeli forces during recent military operations in the northern occupied West Bank.
Smotrich also called for the forced displacement of the villages’ residents and urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strip the areas of the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.
“The population there needs to be evacuated,” Smotrich said, advocating measures that Palestinians and human rights organizations have described as amounting to forcible transfer.
Ben Gvir calls for Gaza-style destruction in the West Bank
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir echoed those calls, demanding harsher collective punishment against Palestinians.
“For every Jew killed, the enemy must pay with land and homes,” Ben Gvir said, urging Israel to replicate in the occupied West Bank the same military tactics used in the Gaza Strip, where entire neighborhoods have been razed during the ongoing war.
The statements came after armed Israeli settlers, escorted by Israeli occupation forces, stormed the village of Tell, southwest of Nablus, triggering confrontations that left four members of the Saifi family killed by Israeli gunfire.
The Israeli military claimed one of the Palestinians seized a weapon from a settler and fatally shot him during the clashes.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of 2026, including 21 Palestinians killed by Israeli settlers.
Settler leaders openly call for bloodshed
Calls for revenge quickly spread among Israeli settler leaders and far-right politicians.
Religious Zionism lawmaker Zvi Sukkot declared that the village of Tell “must become ruins,” while posting a black image on social media bearing a single word: “Revenge.”
Messages circulated in Israeli settler groups reviewed by regional media included explicit calls to destroy the village.
“We want revenge—not settlements, not promises of more housing units,” one message read.
“We want to see blood. There is no comfort without revenge,” another message stated alongside an image depicting a river of blood.
Prominent settler activist Elchanan Groner likewise called for Tell to be “erased,” describing it as a “village of murderers” while calling for vengeance following the settler’s death.
Netanyahu orders demolitions and settlement expansion
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to pursue those responsible, declaring that Israel would “settle accounts” with Palestinians.
Netanyahu announced that he had instructed the Israeli military to demolish the family home of the Palestinian accused of killing the settler and to carry out what he described as swift and forceful operations against surrounding Palestinian communities.
He also ordered the acceleration of plans to legalize and expand Israeli settlement outposts across the occupied West Bank—many of which have served as launching points for repeated settler attacks on Palestinian villages.
Large-scale Israeli military operation
Following the incident, Israeli occupation forces launched a large-scale military campaign across the Nablus area.
According to Palestinian reports, Israeli forces arrested 66 Palestinians, including 30 residents of Tell, while imposing closures around Nablus and sealing the entrances to Tell and neighboring Burin.
Israeli troops also carried out raids across multiple Palestinian communities, storming homes, conducting searches, and detaining civilians. Palestinian sources reported widespread destruction of property during the operations.
Occupation forces additionally raided a hospital in Nablus, arresting two Palestinians whom the military alleged were connected to the clashes.
Settler violence spreads across the West Bank
At the same time, Israeli settlers launched attacks on several Palestinian communities throughout the occupied West Bank.
According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), eight Palestinians were injured during a settler assault on the village of Far’ata, east of Qalqilya, including one person who sustained critical injuries. Settlers reportedly set homes on fire and hurled stones at residents.
Three more Palestinians were injured during another settler attack on the town of Sarra, southwest of Nablus, where settlers also burned homes and vandalized Palestinian property.
Additional attacks were reported in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, as well as in the villages of Awarta and Urif, where settlers allegedly torched property, uprooted olive trees, and attacked agricultural land.
In the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan, west of Salfit, settlers reportedly seized a Palestinian home and raised the Israeli flag over it.
Similar attacks were also reported in Beirin, east of Hebron, Abu Njeim, southeast of Bethlehem, and against water infrastructure in Kafr Malik, northeast of Ramallah.
Israeli settlers also carried out assaults on the villages of Jit, Iraq Burin, and Tell, while a Palestinian man was reportedly stabbed and wounded by settlers in Wadi al-Mu’arrajat in the occupied Jordan Valley.
Violence by Israeli settlers has intensified dramatically across the occupied West Bank since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023, amid growing support from Israel’s far-right government.
Human rights organizations have repeatedly documented that many settler attacks occur under the protection—or in the presence—of Israeli occupation forces, with perpetrators rarely held accountable.
At the same time, Israel has accelerated settlement expansion throughout the occupied West Bank despite international consensus that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. Palestinian officials warn that the combination of expanding settlements, escalating settler violence, and increasingly aggressive military operations forms part of a broader effort to forcibly displace Palestinians and entrench Israeli control over occupied Palestinian territory.
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