On July 24, 2026, dozens of Israeli settlers entered a Palestinian village in the West Bank and attacked at least four homes. In the resulting confrontation, a Palestinian villager took an assault rifle from one of the settlers, shot and killed another armed settler, and shot and wounded four other settlers. An officer of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was also killed, which IDF sources said may have been caused by friendly fire. Four Palestinians were killed as well, including the assailant and three other villagers who were reportedly unarmed. The killing of the armed settler prompted a wave of revenge attacks by Israeli settlers that damaged Palestinian property and the overall incident led to an IDF operation across the West Bank.
The incident follows a sharp rise in settler violence against Palestinians since late 2023 as the Israeli government, particularly under policies adopted by cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, eased restrictions on gun ownership, encouraged the formation of armed neighborhood watches in Israeli settlements, relaxed law enforcement against settler vigilantism, and facilitated the expansion of settlement construction.