Palestinians say man killed as settlers raid West Bank village accompanied by IDF
Incident follows apparent clash at outpost; army says 44-year-old ran at troops with ‘suspicious object’; settlers torch Israeli activist’s car
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A Palestinian man was killed and around a dozen others were injured during clashes in the West Bank on Wednesday, as extremist settlers carried out raids on several Palestinian towns across the territory, sparking intervention from IDF troops.
The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said 44-year-old Ali Al-Bazari died and nine others were injured “as a result of an assault by occupation forces and settlers” on the village of Burqa, north of Nablus in the northern West Bank.
According to Israel Hayom, the incident happened after Palestinians attacked settlers from a nearby farm, with one settler taken to hospital with a head injury, and four others treated at the scene. Settlers apparently then attacked a group of Palestinians harvesting olives in the area.
The Israeli military said troops and border police forces were dispatched to the area following a report of stones being thrown at an Israeli civilian, who was injured.
“A confrontation subsequently developed, involving a gathering of dozens of Palestinians and Israeli civilians,” the IDF said. “During the confrontation and the evacuation of the injured Israeli civilian for medical treatment, a security officer and another Israeli civilian opened fire at the scene.”
“A commander operating in the area identified a terrorist running toward him while carrying a suspicious object and neutralized him,” the IDF said, adding that several Palestinians were detained on suspicion of throwing stones.
Al-Bazzari was a member of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, according to an obituary published on Wednesday. Images from Rafidia Hospital in Nablus showed his sons, wife and mother mourning over his body, with his sons in tears.
“Clashes broke out between young men from the village and settlers before the occupation forces intervened and opened live fire at the Palestinians, killing the young man Al-Bazzari and injuring others,” Burqa mayor Ammar Salah told AFP.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said in separate statements that its teams treated three people wounded by live fire, one of them seriously, and five people injured after being assaulted and beaten in Burqa, and transported the injured to hospitals.
The organization added that Israeli forces “assaulted and beat ambulance crews” and detained staff as they tried to reach the wounded in the area.
Israeli activist says car torched by settlers
Elsewhere in the West Bank, settlers set fire to a vehicle in the village of Deir Nidham, near Ramallah, and spray-painted graffiti against top Israeli security officials, Palestinian media reported.
The graffiti read: “Avi Bluth, watch out” and “Zini, give me administrative detention.”
Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth is the IDF officer responsible for the West Bank, while Shin Bet chief David Zini reportedly warned ministers earlier this week that he may seek to reinstate administrative detention for Jewish extremists in the West Bank to tackle settler attacks on Palestinians.
مستوطنون يهاجمون منازل المواطنين في قرية دير نظام شمال غرب رام الله. pic.twitter.com/qyau54zOkF
— قناة عودة الفضائية (@AwdehTV) October 7, 2026
The torched vehicle belongs to Andrey Khrzhanovskiy, a prominent Russian-Israeli pro-Palestinian activist.
No injuries were reported.
I no longer have a car https://t.co/BVJSxSXmip
— Andrey X (@the_andrey_x) October 7, 2026
IDF destroys ‘martyr’ memorials, dismantles illegal outposts
Meanwhile, as Israel marked he third anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack, the IDF destroyed several memorials to slain Palestinians across the West Bank, saying it had moved “to destroy monuments to terrorists,” without explicitly connecting the move to the anniversary of the 2023 onslaught led by the Gaza-based terror group.
Troops destroyed a stone monument and tore down commemorative posters in the northern region of Jenin, governorate spokeswoman Hala Abu Baker told AFP.
“A memorial to the martyr Yasser Hamdouni was destroyed in the town of Yaabad, and photos of various martyrs were removed from several locations in the city of Jenin,” Abu Baker said.
Hamdouni was convicted of killing an Israeli settler in 2003, and died while serving a life sentence in 2016.
“Martyrs” is a blanket term used by Palestinians to refer to any people killed as part of the conflict, whether civilians or terrorists, with stone memorials or posters commemorating them a frequent sight in West Bank villages and towns.
Israeli troops also raided the West Bank city of Nablus, “destroyed five memorials to martyrs in various parts of the city” and arrested scores of residents, deputy mayor Iyad Bakeer told AFP.
Israeli politicians have frequently denounced the monuments, saying they glorify attacks, but it is rare for the army to destroy them, especially in areas nominally under Palestinian Authority control.
Separately, in Beit Duqqu, the army destroyed the home of a Palestinian man who was accused of killing an Israeli settler last month, the town’s mayor and an AFP journalist reported.
Mayor Nazmi Mansour told AFP that “the Israeli army raided the town at 4 a.m. and distributed leaflets saying it would demolish the home of detainee Qadri Samara.”
The IDF said Wednesday that it also demolished the home of the Palestinian terrorist who killed Netanel Shukrun in a shooting attack near the West Bank settlement of Neve Tzuf last month.
Shukrun, a father of six, had gone to a nearby natural spring with his eldest son to immerse in the water before Yom Kippur in accordance with Jewish tradition. While he was there, the shooter opened fire toward the spring from a vehicle, hitting Shukrun, who was inside his own car at the time.
IDF troops, Border Police officers and combat engineers demolished the terrorist’s home in the town of Biddu, the military said.
As a matter of policy, Israel demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out deadly terror attacks. Israeli officials have said the policy is intended to dissuade Palestinians from planning terror attacks, as doing so will harm their extended families’ livelihoods. Critics have called it collective punishment.
Israeli security forces on Wednesday also evacuated an illegal West Bank settlement outpost close to the settlement of Susyia in the South Hebron Hills region, according to the Honenu organization, which provides legal aid to settlers.
The group said that six people were arrested during the operation, and claimed that police fired rubber bullets to control protesters, injuring several of them.
The police and the Civil Administration, responsible for illegal construction demolitions in the West Bank, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The nearby Palestinian hamlet of Khirbet Susya has repeatedly been attacked by local settler extremists. In February this year, extremists raided the community, pelting homes with stones and setting fire to tents, vehicles and chicken coops.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.
More than 1,100 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, 67 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.
The past year has seen a major surge in attacks by settler extremists on Palestinians and their property across the West Bank. The IDF recorded 867 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence in 2025. The total for 2024 was 682 incidents.
The Times of Israel Community.