IDF arrests dozens of Palestinians in sweeping raids across West Bank after deadly clash

Israeli troops carried out sweeping raids in several Palestinian towns and villages across the West Bank overnight and into Saturday, arresting dozens of people following a deadly gunfight in which two Israelis and four Palestinians were killed, the IDF and Palestinian officials said. In addition, settlers set up four illegal outposts near the area where the clash took place, Hebrew media reported.

The main focus of the IDF raids was the village of Tell near Nablus, where Friday’s deadly incident took place, including searches in the homes of families of the Palestinians who were killed.

Walid Zidan, the mayor of Tell, said around 70 people from the village were detained and questioned at a field interrogation centre set up in a house in the village. Around 10 to 12 had been released so far, he told Reuters by telephone.

“House raids are continuing, army patrols are driving through the streets, and there is no movement of people in the streets,” he said.

The IDF confirmed the raid on Tell and said that soldiers detained 11 wanted Palestinians and questioned another 80.

In the early hours of Saturday, the village was allowed to hold funerals under heavy IDF restrictions for the four Palestinian men killed.

In total, the military said that it apprehended over 70 wanted Palestinians in the West Bank overnight, along with questioning hundreds of others.

The IDF said that in the Jenin area, troops scanned over 300 sites and captured several Palestinians affiliated with Hamas and other suspects who were planning attacks with explosive devices.

In the Ramallah area, soldiers detained 15 wanted Palestinians, including some affiliated with Hamas; in Tulkarem, commandos of the Duvdevan Unit detained a Palestinian affiliated with Hamas who was planning to carry out a terror attack; and in the southern West Bank, 16 more wanted Palestinians were detained, including some affiliated with Hamas and alleged arms dealers.

In addition to the raids, the IDF set up checkpoints and closed gates across the West Bank, witnesses said. The IDF said on Friday it was bolstering its forces in the West Bank by five companies and canceling weekend leave for troops.

In Friday’s incident, a group of settlers — some underage and accompanied by armed adults — raided the town, claiming they were on a hike, though the army later said that the visit into Areas A and B where Israelis are barred had not been coordinated.

Palestinians sought to repel the raiding settlers, and a clash broke out, with one of the Palestinians managing to snatch the weapon of Benayahu Mellet, a 32-year-old member of the neighboring Havat Gilad settlement’s civil security squad.

A gunfight ensued, with the Palestinian fatally shooting Mellet along with Maj. Yuval Ezra, an IDF officer who had been dispatched to the scene.

A platoon commander who arrived with Ezra at the scene managed to shoot dead the attacker, and three other Palestinians were also killed in the gunfight. In addition, two Israelis were wounded, one critically and one seriously, and four Palestinians were wounded, three of whom critically.

Following the clash, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to take “powerful action” in response, including demolishing the home of the family of one of the Palestinians involved. Netanyahu’s office said he would accelerate the approval of construction of more Israeli settlements in the area.

New outposts

According to Army Radio, settlement activists set up four illegal outposts overnight in the area, including one near Tell at the site of the clash.

One of the outposts was set up near the Palestinian village of Awarta, another was near Asira al-Qibliya and the fourth near Mount Ebal, all in the northern West Bank.

According to the report, some of the four outposts were set up in Area B of the West Bank, which would be illegal under Israeli law, while the others were in Area C. Under the accords, Area B is under Palestinian civilian control and Israeli security control. Area C is under full Israeli control.

All four outposts consist of small shelters and tents, with some including flocks of livestock, the report said.

The IDF had no immediate comment.

إذاعة جيش الاحتلال: 4 بؤر استيطانية جديدة أقيمت في مناطق “ب” و”ج” في شمال الضفة الغربية منذ أمس الجمعة حتى الآن

???? إحدى البؤر أقيمت في موقع مقتل مستوطن وجندي في قرية تل، والبؤرة الثانية قرب قرية عورتا، والثالثة قرب قرية عصيرة القبلية، أما الرابعة فأقيمت في منطقة جبل عيبال pic.twitter.com/EKXgLz0XH9

— Ultra Palestine – الترا فلسطين (@palestineultra) July 25, 2026

Also early Saturday, Israeli settlers opened fire on Palestinian vehicles in the village of Abu Njeim, southeast of Bethlehem, WAFA reported

According to the report, a group of settlers entered the village, spread throughout it and fired at passing vehicles.

WAFA said the settlers also blocked the village’s main road, seized one of the vehicles and vandalized it before leaving the area.

Israeli settler militias block with rocks a road serving local Palestinians in the Abu Njeim area, south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, disrupting Palestinian traffic in the region. pic.twitter.com/LiPxA1FFQ7

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) June 24, 2026

Hundreds of settler extremists rioted in Palestinian towns across the West Bank on Friday afternoon, as a funeral was held for Mellet, the Israeli civil security squad member who was shot dead by a Palestinian.

Settler rampages were reported in over a dozen villages across the northern West Bank, where several hundred Israelis hurled stones, torched homes and reportedly wounded over a dozen Palestinians.

Funeral restrictions

The military allowed the villagers of Tell to bury the four Palestinians killed in the incident, but under heavy restrictions.

“Families of the four martyrs held a common funeral early this morning, around 1:00 am (2200 GMT), but the army restricted who could attend and only about 30 people were able to be there,” Zidan, the mayor, told AFP.

Due to the ongoing Israeli military offensive in the town of Tell, southwest of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli occupation army allowed only a small number of mourners to attend the funeral of the four Palestinians killed during yesterday’s pogrom carried out by… pic.twitter.com/xahcwDfXc4

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) July 25, 2026

Ghassan Daghlas, the governor of the Nablus region, which includes Tell, attended a funerary prayer at the Nablus hospital where the bodies were before the funeral in Tell.

“Daghlas participated in the funeral procession of the martyrs from the village of Tell, amid a large public turnout of residents from the village and across Nablus Governorate,” his office said in a statement.

An AFP journalist at the hospital reported the four deceased Palestinians’ bodies were laid on stretchers and wrapped in Palestinian flags while friends and relatives said their good-byes.

Ahmed Ramadan, father of one of the deceased, told AFP at the hospital he did not know his son was dead until he reached the medical facility.

“I was asked to go to the hospital… and when I arrived, I found my son had been killed, two of my nephews also been killed, and a fourth nephew died as well,” he said.

Violence in the West Bank has soared since the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and massacre in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 2512 taken hostage, triggering the Gaza war.

More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the war started, according to the PA health ministry. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or terrorists carrying out attacks.

During the same period, 68 civilians and Israeli security personnel have been killed in Israel and the West Bank, most of them in terror attacks. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes during raids in Palestinian cities in the West Bank.

The same period has also seen a major surge in attacks by settler extremists on Palestinians and their property across the West Bank. The IDF recorded 867 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence in 2025. The total for 2024 was 682 incidents.