IDF declares ‘closed military zone’ after settler attack wounds several Palestinians

The Israeli military declared an area near the West Bank city of Bethlehem a closed military zone following a settler attack that wounded several Palestinians. The Palestinian Red Crescent said one of the injured people had been shot.

Soldiers and police officers were dispatched to an area on the outskirts of Bethlehem following reports of a “violent confrontation” between Israelis and Palestinians, the army said.

The military said it also received reports of stone-throwing between the Israelis and Palestinians, and gunfire directed at the Palestinians.

The military said troops used riot dispersal means, and in addition, “declared a closed military zone in the area,” a move that is likely to restrict the movement of Palestinians living in the area.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that 10 Palestinians were wounded in the attack on the village of Khalayel al-Loz, including one by gunfire. The status of the wounded was unclear.

Several Israelis were also wounded, but “refused medical attention,” the IDF said.

Khalayel al-Loz council member Abdelrahman Farhan was cited in Arabic media saying settlers beat and shot at Palestinians from the village for about 45 minutes mid-day on Saturday until the military intervened and pushed the settlers away. He said the area is subject to repeated assaults, including destruction of property.

Footage published by Palestinian media on Saturday showed a group of settlers, clad in white shirts and skullcaps, and one of them carrying a semi-automatic rifle, tossing stones from a hill overlooking the village south of Bethlehem.

مقطع يوثق اعتداءات المستوطنين على الأهالي ومنازلهم وممتلكاتهم في منطقة خلايل اللوز جنوب مدينة بيت لحم. pic.twitter.com/MokjxF81KN

— القسطل الإخباري (@AlQastalps) November 29, 2025

Further footage showed Palestinians and settlers facing off in a field. Shots are heard, apparently from a settler seen moments earlier in the video, pointing a gun upward, who, after the shots appears to point his gun at a Palestinian while yelling, “go back”

The incident was under investigation by the Israel Police.

Settler attacks have spiked in the West Bank, with the IDF recording 752 incidents of Jewish nationalist crime and settler violence since the start of 2025 — up from 675 in all of 2024.

Violence was already high in the West Bank amid the war in Gaza, sparked by the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.

الضفة الغربية: جانب من هجوم المستوطنين على خلايل اللوز جنوب بيت لحم pic.twitter.com/ytm0KcnCMn

— موقع عرب 48 (@arab48website) November 29, 2025

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the war started, according to the PA health ministry. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or terrorists carrying out attacks.

During the same period, 63 civilians and Israeli security personnel have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes during raids in Palestinian cities in the West Bank.

Noam Lehmann contributed to this report.