Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday decried the intensified wave of settler violence in the West Bank and called on the international community to take action.

According to HRW, which conducted interviews and reviewed recordings of the incident, “40 to 50 settlers, including children, approached Tal from the east” and attacked several homes on July 24. A confrontation erupted and “an armed settler shot and wounded a Palestinian man.” The settlers fled and returned roughly 30 minutes later with Israeli soldiers, and another violent confrontation ensued, resulting in the deaths of two Israelis and four Palestinians.

HRW expressed alarm at the Israeli government’s responses to the clashes, after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered a “crackdown” in the West Bank, including increased military presence, checkpoints, and an expansion of “counterterrorism operations,” which the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced in a Telegram post. 

Since the IDF announcement, it has been reported that two villages have been attacked and vandalized by Israeli settlers. Palestinian officials report that settlers set fire to a mosque in Qusra and a mosque in Kour, and that two Palestinian homes have possibly been demolished. HRW strongly condemned the reprisal attacks.

The IDF issued a statement on Telegram that “IDF soldiers were dispatched to … Tal following a report regarding an attack on Israeli civilians who were hiking in the area.” However, according to witnesses and recordings examined by HRW, the Israeli settlers appeared to be the instigators of the physical altercation on July 24, and are seen “kicking a Palestinian man before a fight breaks out.”

The UN recently warned that settler violence has had an alarming impact on the suffering of Palestinian civilians, condemning the Israeli government’s enabling of such violence. Many countries, including Canada, France, and the UK, have recently imposed sanctions against perpetrators and supporters of settler violence in the occupied West Bank. The European Council has also increased its sanctions against extremist Israeli settlers, amidst heightened forced displacement and violence by both Israeli settlers and security forces.

HRW highlighted that many settlers are enabled through “financial, material, and legal backing of the Israeli state.” It urged the international community to act “so that the Israeli government does not continue to act as if it has a green light to commit further atrocities.” It called on “concerned governments” to take action to prevent further abuses and violence against Palestinian civilians.