Israel detains 70 in West Bank after Tell violence kills six

Nablus,UPDATED: Jul 25, 2026 21:10 IST

Israel's military said it detained more than 70 suspects across the occupied West Bank overnight on Saturday, a day after violence in the village of Tell left two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinian villagers dead. In Gaza, Palestinian health officials said Israeli strikes on Saturday killed at least four Palestinians and wounded at least 15 others.

Israeli troops remained in Tell in the northern West Bank, while Palestinians reported wide-ranging searches, including a raid on a hospital in Nablus. In Gaza, strikes were reported in Khan Younis, Jabaliya, Gaza City, Nuseirat and near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, even as the heaviest fighting has eased since a fragile ceasefire took hold in October.

The circumstances of Friday's violence in Tell remained unclear. Israeli media reports and interviews with local Palestinian officials suggested that a group of settlers entered the village and were confronted by residents who feared an attack. Tell is off-limits to Israelis as part of Area B under the 1993 Oslo Accords.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli soldiers shot dead four Palestinians in Tell. The Israeli military reported the deaths of two soldiers, one of them a settler in a local defence squad. Health officials said two other Israelis and four more Palestinians were wounded. The military said it detained 11 suspects in Tell.

Palestinians also described searches in Nablus, one of the West Bank's most violent areas. Ghassan Barkat, director of Nablus Speciality Hospital, told journalists: "More than 50 armed soldiers and officers stormed the hospital, terrifying the patients." He said soldiers on Friday detained, bound and insulted staff and patients, raided all departments of the hospital and arrested a seriously injured man, Ali Hussein Ali Ramadan. "This should not happen in a healthcare institution," Barkat said, adding that women and children were present.

Israel's military did not mention the hospital in its statement, but said more than 300 locations were searched. It said those detained included what it described as affiliates of the Hamas militant group, arms traffickers, "terrorists" and others. Amin Shuman, president of the Palestinian higher commission for the affairs of prisoners, said more than 80 Palestinians were arrested across the territory, calling it "an attempt to impose collective punitive measures and retaliatory policies" against Palestinian citizens after Friday's events.

Palestinians in the West Bank were left to repair damaged homes and vehicles. They have faced violence as settlement construction has risen over the past four years. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlements in these areas illegal and an obstacle to peace. More than 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for an independent state along with the Gaza Strip.

In Gaza, officials said an airstrike in Khan Younis killed a man and a woman, and their bodies were taken to Nasser Hospital. In northern Gaza, a strike on a vehicle in the Jabaliya area killed one person and wounded two others, according to officials at Shifa Hospital. A strike on a motorbike in Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood killed the director of the area's police force, according to the Interior Ministry and Shifa Hospital.

Another strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza wounded three people, according to the Belgian field hospital. Israeli drones also struck the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, wounding 10 people, the hospital said. According to the hospital, severely wounded men covered in blood were rushed in by bystanders. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes. Militants have carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to that and other violations.

While the heaviest fighting has subsided since the ceasefire, Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes that have killed at least 1,191 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, keeps detailed casualty records that UN agencies and independent experts generally regard as reliable. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants, but says women and children make up most of the dead. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire. The Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage, and Israel's offensive in Gaza has since killed more than 73,317 Palestinians, the ministry said.

The latest developments saw a broad Israeli security operation across the West Bank after the violence in Tell, alongside fresh strikes across Gaza that added to the death toll despite the ceasefire period.

With PTI Inputs

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