Palestinians bury four people killed in occupied West Bank clash with Israeli settlers Grieving family members on Saturday buried four Palestinian men killed during a clash with Israeli settlers a day earlier in the occupied West Bank. Palestinians reported a series of violent settler attacks on other villages in the Palestinian territory late Friday following the deadly confrontation, with local officials saying Israelis had set fire to olive groves in Farata and opened fire on people trying to extinguish the blaze. Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank village of Tell on Saturday buried four men killed during a clash with Israeli settlers in the village the previous day, local officials said.

"Families of the four martyrs held a common funeral early this morning, around 1am (22:00 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, said. Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has surged since the Gaza war began with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Watch moreSettler violence in the West Bank intensifies against Palestinians On Friday, about 20 Israelis from a nearby settlement entered the village and clashed with Palestinian residents of Tell defending their property, Zidan told AFP.

A Palestinian villager seized an Israeli's weapon and shot one settler dead, leading an emergency response team from a nearby settlement to rush to the scene and more gunfire that left four Palestinians and a second Israeli dead, the Israeli military said. Israeli forces closed gates and checkpoints throughout the West Bank, severely obstructing movement, AFP journalists reported. 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.

Settler reprisals Palestinians reported other bouts of settler-driven violence in the northern West Bank following Friday's confrontation, with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas' office condemning "Israeli colonists' terrorism" in a statement. The statement denounced the killings in Tell, as well as settler attacks later Friday in the villages of Awarta, Sarra, Urif, Amriha, Masafer Yatta and Farata. In Farata, near Havat Gilad, "settlers set fire to the olive groves", said Abdel Moneim Shanneh, head of the local council.

"The army prevented young men from the village from extinguishing fires and opened fire on them." The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams transported eight individuals injured in the attack, including six with bullet wounds.