Israeli forces arrested over a dozen Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, after at least four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed in a shootout when armed Israeli settlers approached a Palestinian village.
The circumstances of Friday's events remained unclear, but the clash in Tell has already had political repercussions, with Israel vowing to approve more settlements in the West Bank.
Israeli media reports and interviews with local Palestinian officials suggested a group of armed settlers entered Tell and were resisted by residents fearful of an attack. The Israeli military initially described the Israeli civilians involved in the incident as hikers, but later acknowledged some were armed and said both sides had opened fire before troops intervened.
Walid Zidan, head of the Tell village council, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) about 20 armed Israeli settlers from a nearby settlement entered the village and clashed with residents on Friday.
"The settlers were not following a route or trail, as they claim. They intended to attack the homes," Zidan said.
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"People did not go there looking for a confrontation with them; they were simply defending their homes, nothing more and nothing less."
Palestinian health officials said Israeli soldiers shot and killed four Palestinians in Tell, while the Israeli military reported the deaths of two soldiers, one of them a settler in a local defence squad. Two other Israeli settlers and four more Palestinians were wounded.
Detainees had 'numbers written on heads'
Tell is part of the so-called Area A of the West Bank, where Palestinian authorities have administrative control and Israeli civilians are barred under Israeli law from entering. Area A comprises less than a fifth of the West Bank.
Zidan on Sunday said around 70 people from the village had been detained and questioned at a field interrogation centre set up in a house in the village. Around 10 to 12 had been released so far, he told Reuters by telephone.
"House raids are continuing, army patrols are driving through the streets, and there is no movement of people in the streets," he said.
"Every person who was brought in was assigned a number, which was written on their forehead," said Saif Hamza, who was released after questioning.
Over 80 Palestinians were arrested across the territory, said Amin Shuman, president of the Palestinian higher commission for the affairs of prisoners, calling them "an attempt to impose collective punitive measures and retaliatory policies" against Palestinian citizens after Friday’s events.
The Israeli military said security forces had questioned 80 people in the area of Tell and arrested 11 of them.
Dozens more were arrested in raids across the West Bank, the Israeli military said, including some whom it described as suspects affiliated with the militant group Hamas.
'Under what law?'
Zidan said he still struggled to comprehend what had happened in the village.
"I am in my own home, and someone comes and assaults me," he said.
"Under what law? Under what moral or legal authority? I am in my own home, on my own land. By what right you, as settlers, come here?"
An AFP journalist at the hospital reported the four deceased Palestinians' bodies were laid on stretchers and wrapped in Palestinian flags while friends and relatives said their goodbyes.
Ismail al-Saifi, another resident of Tell, told AFP the settlers' presence in the village was not an isolated incident, and that locals had decided to fight back on Friday.
Israel vows to approve more settlements
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that following the deaths of the two Israelis, he would allow the establishment of more settlements in the region.
All Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law.
Netanyahu said Israel would conduct more raids in Palestinian villages and accelerate "the legalisation of farm outposts and establishment of new ones". Outposts are small illegal settlements usually established without Israeli government approval.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, but in recent years the number of illegal settlements in the Palestinian territory has soared.
Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, home to around three million Palestinians.
According to an AFP tally based on data from the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,097 Palestinians since the start of the Gaza war.
Israelis protest against settler violence in Tel Aviv
A day after the attack in Tell, Israelis staged a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Saturday (local time).
Israeli activists carried banners reading "Palestinian Lives Matter," "Stop the genocide in Gaza," and "Stop the ongoing Nakba from the West Bank to Gaza," while calling for an end to settler violence and peace with Palestinians.
Police intervened in the demonstration and arrested nine protesters, according to Israeli media reports.
Tel Aviv-based The Mothers Against Violence protest group said more than 200 people took part in the demonstration, and accused police of using force against demonstrators.
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