Human Rights Watch: Settlers and Soldiers Operated Together in July 24 Tal Clashes, Six Dead

Human Rights Watch said Friday that videos it verified and witness interviews indicate armed Israeli settlers attacked the West Bank village of Tal twice on July 24 and were operating alongside Israeli soldiers during the second confrontation, which left four Palestinians and two Israelis dead.

The rights group said the four Palestinians killed were two brothers and two cousins from the Ramadan family. Citing Israeli military statements, it identified the two Israelis killed as Benyahu Mellet, 32, and Maj. Yuval Ezra, 27, an active-duty Israeli soldier. Human Rights Watch said it reviewed six videos and interviewed two witnesses and a local activist. The Israeli military said soldiers were sent after a report of “an attack on Israeli civilians who were hiking in the area” and that “terrorists stole the weapon of a security personnel who had arrived at the scene and opened fire toward the Israeli civilians.” The military later said a platoon commander returned fire and killed the Palestinian gunman. Human Rights Watch said the military has not publicly explained the killing of the other three Palestinians.

According to Human Rights Watch’s account, based on witness interviews and the verified footage, 40 to 50 settlers, including children, entered Tal from the east between about 6:10 a.m. and 6:45 a.m., attacked four or five Palestinian homes with stones and tried to break in. During that confrontation, the group said, an armed settler shot and wounded a Palestinian man before the settlers withdrew. About 30 minutes later, Human Rights Watch said, the same group re-entered Tal from the southwest and was joined by Israeli soldiers. Geolocated videos, it said, show two armed settlers alongside a uniformed Israeli soldier near Palestinian men. In one video, settlers appear to start a physical altercation and a soldier fires into the air. In another, a Palestinian man appears to take a firearm from a settler before gunfire erupts. Human Rights Watch said that man was then killed and that three other Palestinians were also shot dead. Witness Mujahid Waleed told the group: “The settlers were attacking the Palestinians, and the army stood by and didn’t intervene.”

The violence was followed by an immediate escalation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency security meeting, ordered the redeployment of five battalions to the West Bank and directed what his office called an “intensive counterterrorism operation.” Human Rights Watch said settler reprisal attacks were then reported in nearby Palestinian villages, citing Palestinian reporting of injuries, arson and property damage.

The political response quickly broadened beyond the confrontation in Tal. Netanyahu also said he would accelerate the regularization of settler outposts and the establishment of new ones. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for establishing a settlement at the nearby Sela outpost and for shifting the area from Area B to Area C, a move that would place it under full Israeli control. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, according to a post on X quoted by Human Rights Watch, said: “For every Jew murdered - the enemy must absorb the loss of lands and homes.”

Mellet, one of the two Israelis killed, was reported by Human Rights Watch to head the civil defense squad of the Havat Gilad settlement. That detail is significant in a broader West Bank security environment that has changed since Oct. 7, 2023, when Israel expanded armed settlement civil defense squads and related security structures. Human Rights Watch and Israeli media have said those arrangements have increasingly blurred the line between armed settlers and state forces, a distinction central to Human Rights Watch’s finding that verified footage showed settlers and soldiers together during the second clash.

The incident took place in Area B, where under the Oslo II interim accords the Palestinian Authority has civil control and security is shared with Israel. It comes amid a wider rise in settler violence in the occupied West Bank. Human Rights Watch cited U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA figures showing that as of July 19, 68 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank in 2026, including at least 13 by settlers. OCHA has also reported a steep increase this year in settler-related injuries and property attacks.