THE Israeli military has shot and killed four Palestinians after an Israeli settler was killed in a confrontation with local residents.
The four Palestinians were killed in the village of Tell in the northern West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, raising tensions in the occupied territory.
Two other Israelis and four more Palestinians were wounded, health officials said, and the Israeli military announced it was preparing for an “extensive” counter-terror operation in the West Bank.
The exact circumstances of the incident remained unclear. But Israeli media reports and interviews with local Palestinian officials suggested a group of settlers entered Tell on Friday morning and were confronted by residents who were fearful of an attack.
According to the Israeli military, one of the residents took one of the settlers’ weapons and fired on the group, killing Benayahu Mellet, 32, a security guard in a settlement nearby.
In a video of the incident, confirmed by the Israeli military and circulated online by the military correspondent for Israel’s Army Radio, two armed men in civilian clothing, as well as at least one Israeli soldier, are shown pointing their weapons at a group of Palestinians who had gathered in a field.
At one point, the two armed men rush towards several Palestinian residents with their guns drawn. In the footage, the residents try to push them back and appear to disarm one of the men before opening fire.
In a statement, the Israeli military said it killed the man who took the settler’s weapon and that he was armed when soldiers shot him.
But a separate video, published by Israeli media outlets and confirmed by the military, showed Israeli forces firing on a group of Palestinians in the same field who were already on the ground.
More than a dozen gunshots can be heard in the footage, which is less than a minute long.
The military said the suspect was one of the people killed in the field.
It did not respond to questions about why soldiers killed the other men — all of whom were related — or how long after the original altercation the killings took place.
Later, army chief Eyal Zamir said he was sending more troops to the occupied West Bank, where soldiers have encircled Tell and the nearby city of Nablus.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said Israel would “act forcefully” following the incident.
Following the incident, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said that Israeli forces imposed "sweeping movement restrictions" across Nablus, the area where Tell is located, and the occupied West Bank, sealing off cities, villages and entire communities.
PHRI said in a statement that medical teams in the area said Israeli forces entered Nablus Specialized Hospital while searching for the body of one of the deceased Palestinians, "causing more chaos, disrupting the work of medical staff and the functioning of the hospital".
They said ambulances had been unable to reach patients or evacuate wounded due to military roadblocks and widespread closures. Paramedics, they said, report that villages surrounding Nablus have been "effectively cut off", and that at least four patients are awaiting evacuation without access to medical care.
"According to paramedics on the ground, coordination mechanisms have failed to secure passage for ambulances or civil defense vehicles," the statement said. "As a result, patients cannot reach hospitals, emergency medical teams cannot reach those in need, and frontline responders describe the current restrictions as unprecedented in their impact on emergency medical access."
Imran Anati, researched in the Occupied Palestinian Territory department at PHRI, said Israeli forces entering a hospital in search of a body "constitutes a grave violation of medical neutrality and undermines the special protection afforded to hospitals under international law".
"Hospitals must never become sites of military operations that disrupt medical care, intimidate healthcare workers, or compromise the treatment of patients," they added.
"At the same time, sealing off entire communities and preventing ambulances from reaching patients or transporting the wounded puts lives at immediate risk.
"The reports emerging from the Nablus area - including ambulances unable to move, patients stranded without access to care, and a woman forced to give birth in her village because she could not reach a hospital – illustrate the devastating human cost of these restrictions. The Israeli authorities must immediately ensure safe and unimpeded access for ambulances and medical personnel and fully respect their obligations under international humanitarian law."
