At least six people — four Palestinians and two Israelis — were killed on Friday in and around the northern West Bank village of Tal, southwest of Nablus, in the deadliest single incident in the occupied territory in months. The violence has triggered an Israeli military crackdown, settler attacks on nearby Palestinian villages, and a sharp political escalation from the Israeli government.

Accounts of how the confrontation began differ sharply. Palestinian witnesses and local leaders say that around 30 armed settlers from the nearby outpost of Havat Gilad entered Tal and attacked Palestinian homes, prompting residents to rush out and confront them. Israeli soldiers arrived and opened fire alongside the settlers, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to media. The Israeli military offered a different account: it said soldiers were responding to a report that Israeli civilians on an unauthorised hike had been attacked by Palestinians. According to the military, a Palestinian seized a weapon from a civilian security guard accompanying the group and used it to kill him; soldiers then killed that Palestinian. Three other members of the same Palestinian family were also killed in the ensuing exchange of fire. A 27-year-old Israeli soldier — later identified as company commander Yoav Ezra — was also killed, though the precise circumstances of his death remain unclear. Several Palestinians and at least two other Israelis were wounded. Two widely shared videos from the scene, which have not been independently verified, show chaotic scenes with armed civilians, soldiers, and a scramble for a weapon before shots ring out.

Israeli forces subsequently imposed a blockade on Nablus and Tal, erecting checkpoints on approach roads and launching what the military described as a broad counterterrorism operation. Troops raided a specialist hospital in Nablus and arrested two brothers — one of them wounded — whom they accused of involvement in the shooting, drawing condemnation from hospital staff who said soldiers assaulted medical personnel and restrained doctors and nurses with handcuffs. Following the incident in Tal, dozens of armed settlers carried out attacks on several nearby Palestinian villages, burning homes and olive groves in communities including Far'ata, where at least eight people were wounded, one of them shot in the head.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency security meeting and vowed to act