Israeli army kills 5 Palestinians, settlers torch homes in West Bank after far-right minister incites attacks

Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, just hours after far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich publicly called for the flattening of entire Palestinian towns in response to the death of an Israeli settler.

The Israeli military claimed the five men were "terrorists" and said a sixth was arrested after they were besieged in a building in the town of Tamoun.

The army used shoulder-fired missiles during the raid. No evidence has been provided linking the men to Wednesday’s shooting in the illegal Israeli settlement of Brukhin, where 30-year-old Tzeela Gez was killed while on her way to give birth. Her child was delivered by caesarean section and survived, according to Israeli media.

Tamoun is located about 35 kilometres (22 miles) from Brukhin. The Israeli military has not named suspects or explained the basis for targeting the men killed in the raid, though soldiers claimed they found rifles in the building.

Footage from Tamoun showed gunfire erupting, and black smoke rising from the top floor of a house surrounded by Israeli troops. According to the Palestinian WAFA news agency, the military then demolished the home where the men were killed.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli army bulldozers razed wide areas of Palestinian-owned land in the Salfit governorate, near the site of the settler killing. The mayor of Bruqin, a town near Brukhin, said Israeli bulldozers carved roads dangerously close to Palestinian homes, some within 10 metres, raising fears of further destruction.

Israeli soldiers also assaulted a Palestinian man during a raid on his home, injuring him and reportedly blocking an ambulance from reaching him. Witnesses told WAFA that the army stole around 10,000 shekels (roughly $10,000) in cash, along with personal documents and belongings.

Earlier in the day, several Israeli military vehicles were filmed storming Tamoun.

Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister and a settler himself, took to social media platform X to call for the towns of Bruqin and Kafr ad-Dik to be "flattened", just like parts of Khan Younis and Rafah in Gaza.

He described the Palestinian attacker as "sub-human", using dehumanising language that has drawn widespread condemnation in the past.

Settlers escalate attacks on Palestinians

Illegal Israeli settlers also rampaged through the West Bank on Thursday, in parallel with the military assault. In Bidya, settlers set fire to a Palestinian wedding hall and sprayed racist slogans like “Death to Arabs” across its walls. In Burqin, they torched a Palestinian-owned bulldozer. Homes, vehicles, and other properties were also damaged in retaliatory attacks across the Salfit governorate.

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law, yet settlers continue to act with impunity, often backed or protected by the Israeli military.

WhatsApp groups used by settler communities were filled with calls for revenge. “To make sure this never happens again... we need real revenge! Erase every terror village,” one message read, as reported by Reuters.

Since Israel launched its war on Gaza on 7 October 2023, over 920 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers.

More than 11,000 have been arrested. Military raids, settler violence, and destruction of Palestinian property have become near-daily occurrences under the ongoing occupation.