RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Four Palestinians killed in an attack by Israeli settlers and Israeli forces on the occupied West Bank village of Tell were laid to rest on Saturday, with local officials saying Israeli military restrictions severely limited attendance at the funeral.
“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,” Walid Zidan, head of the Tell village council, told AFP.
Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has surged since the Gaza war began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
On Friday, Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered a “wide-scale military operation” in Palestinian villages across the occupied West Bank following an attack near the illegal Havat Gilad settlement that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others.
According to sources and witnesses, illegal Israeli settlers later attacked several Palestinian communities in the Nablus governorate, setting fire to Palestinian homes and other property.
Four Palestinians were killed on Friday in an attack by illegal settlers and Israeli forces on the town of Tell, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Israeli forces are constantly carrying out extensive raids on homes across the town while surrounding it from all directions.
According to official Palestinian figures, 87 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of 2026, including 21 killed by illegal Israeli settlers.
Since October 2023, at least 1,182 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 24,000 detained in Israeli military raids and settler attacks.
By the time of the funeral, movement was still restricted, and Zidan told AFP that the military was still present in the village Saturday morning, having detained 51 residents for questioning, and released just six.
Ghassan Daghlas, the governor of the Nablus region, which includes Tell, was able to attend the funeral.
“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.
In the statement posted on Facebook, a photo of the funeral showed the four deceased Palestinians’ bodies still on stretchers and wrapped in Palestinian flags.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, but in recent years, the number of settlements in the Palestinian territory — which are illegal under international law — has soared.
Excluding East Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, home to around three million Palestinians.
