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West Bank violence and raids
Israeli forces and settlers escalated violence in the occupied West Bank after a deadly gunfight in the Nablus-area Palestinian village of Tell, with two Israelis and four Palestinians killed and the clash sparking dozens of settler raids and a major IDF crackdown.
Launching an election campaign at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, Democrats leader Yair Golan accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz of deliberately turning the West Bank "on the eve of the election into a violent arena that endangers human life."
In parallel, Israeli police arrested nine protesters during a Tel Aviv demonstration against Israeli occupier violence in the occupied West Bank, with the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reporting police detained nine people among hundreds of demonstrators.
An Anadolu tally based on official Palestinian data and field reports said Israeli forces arrested 75 Palestinians and injured eight Saturday during raids and attacks across 22 towns and villages in seven governorates.
Since the start of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, Anadolu reported at least 1,182 Palestinians have been killed, 13,000 injured and nearly 24,000 arrested in the occupied West Bank, according to official Palestinian figures.
Protests, arrests, and accusations
At the Tel Aviv rally, Golan said "Our soldiers27 blood that has been spilled, and that unfortunately is yet to be spilled, is on their hands," vowing to dismantle Itamar Ben Gvir27s armed militias and Bezalel Smotrich27s outposts so that the IDF would return to protecting the State of Israel.
The same election campaign coverage described far-left demonstrators protesting "apartheid" in the West Bank blocking a road and prompting police to arrest nine people, while activists also held an anti-government protest elsewhere in Tel Aviv.
In the separate Tel Aviv protest against settler violence, Israeli police said the demonstration had gone ahead without authorisation and had begun to "disrupt public order and block the roadway," according to local media.
Al Jazeera reported that the protest came a day after Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinians in the town of Tal, near Nablus, during a settler incursion on their land, and that two Israelis were also killed in the confrontation.
Political analyst Ori Goldberg told Al Jazeera that video of the attack on Tal made denial impossible for the Israeli public, saying "They saw the Jewish terrorist come into the villages and they saw the response".
What comes next in Gaza war
The violence in the West Bank is being framed by multiple outlets as part of a broader escalation tied to Israel27s war on Gaza, with Al Jazeera citing official Palestinian figures that since October 2023 at least 1,182 Palestinians have been killed, 13,000 wounded and nearly 24,000 arrested in the occupied West Bank.
In retaliation for Friday27s shooting incident in Tal, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a wide-scale military operation across the West Bank, and Israeli forces arrested nearly 50 Palestinians in Tal while raiding about 70 homes, according to Al Jazeera.
The Anadolu report also described Israeli forces imposing a siege on Nablus and surrounding towns following the violence and carrying out mass arrest raids, alongside announced preparations for a wide-scale military operation across the occupied West Bank.
While the Tel Aviv protests focused on settler violence and Israeli military rule, the same Al Jazeera account said funerals for the four killed were held before dawn under restrictions on attendance.
As the cycle of raids, arrests, and protests continues, the Anadolu tally and Al Jazeera27s figures both place the West Bank27s toll within the timeline of Israel27s Gaza war that began in October 2023, with the reported numbers used to describe the scale of the impact.
