On July 24, 2026, an outbreak of violence near the Palestinian village of Tell, south of Nablus in the West Bank, left six people dead and triggered a large-scale Israeli military operation across the region.

According to available sources, a group of Israelis from the nearby settlement of Gilad Farm entered the village of Tell, located in areas classified as A and B, where access by Israeli citizens is prohibited and where, according to military sources cited by the press, the incursion had not been coordinated with the army. Residents of Tell, according to their account, consider what happened to be an attack by settlers on the village. The Israeli account states instead that a Palestinian seized a firearm and opened fire.

The confrontation escalated into a gunfight involving IDF soldiers who rushed to the scene. The death toll stands at four Palestinians, all from the same family, one IDF soldier, and the security officer of the Gilad Farm settlement who, according to Palestinian sources, was killed by his own weapon after it was taken from him. The total number of casualties amounts to six, as confirmed by multiple outlets.

In response to the events, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a massive military operation and convened an emergency meeting. Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir announced a large-scale deployment of forces, sending two additional battalions to the West Bank, bringing the total number of operational battalions in the area to 24. Weekend leave for soldiers was cancelled. Nablus and surrounding villages, including Bei Furik, Tell, and Burin, were placed under a movement blockade. Israeli soldiers also raided a hospital in Nablus to arrest wounded Palestinians involved in the Tell shooting.

Throughout the day, settlers from outposts in the area carried out raids on several Palestinian villages, including Farata, Sarra, and Jit, setting fire to agricultural land, vehicles, and homes. According to Palestinian sources, two Palestinians were killed by the IDF while attempting to extinguish the fires. The Israeli military provided a different account, stating that a group of Palestinians had set fire to the fields and attacked settlers.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, approximately seventy Palestinian villages in the West Bank have formed armed civilian defense committees in response to the intensification of settler attacks. At the hospital in Nablus, local sources challenged the Israeli reconstruction of the incident, claiming that the Israelis who entered Tell were not hikers but settlers.