Four Palestinians and one Israeli were killed in a shooting near the village of Tell, close to Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, in what residents described as a settler attack that also involved Israeli military forces.
Several other people were seriously injured in the incident, health officials said. The confrontation is the deadliest recorded in the West Bank so far this year and has raised fears of a wider cycle of reprisals between Israeli-backed settlers and Palestinian communities.
Palestinian residents of Tell said the violence erupted when settlers raided the town, an account that has not been independently verified. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service confirmed that one Israeli was killed near the town.
The circumstances surrounding the deaths and the precise sequence of events remain unclear, with conflicting accounts emerging from the two sides. Local witnesses said Israeli soldiers were present during the confrontation, though official Israeli statements had not addressed that claim.
Violence in the occupied West Bank has intensified over the past year, with a sharp rise in settler attacks on Palestinian villages and repeated Israeli military raids. Palestinian armed groups have also carried out shootings targeting settlers and soldiers.
The territory, home to roughly three million Palestinians and several hundred thousand Israeli settlers, has seen mounting tensions as regional conflict has spread across multiple fronts. Similar concerns over civilian casualties have been voiced elsewhere in the region, including rising international unease over deaths in Lebanon amid Israeli operations.
Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, a position Israel disputes. The status of the territory remains one of the central issues in the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Authorities on both sides had yet to release detailed findings on the incident, and it was not immediately clear whether arrests had been made. Palestinian officials warned that the attack could trigger further unrest across the northern West Bank in the coming days.