We want to see blood: Israeli political leadership and settler groups call for revenge against Palestinians

Israeli political leaders and settler organisations have called for "revenge" against Palestinians, saying they "want to see blood" and "erase the village of Tell". 

Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, on Friday called for the destruction of the villages of Tell, Iraq Burin and Beit Furik, stating that these communities "should look exactly like the refugee camps in Nablus and Tulkarm", referring to the large-scale destruction the Israeli military has inflicted there.

"The population there needs to be evacuated," Smotrich added, calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strip the area from the Palestinian Authority's responsibility.

Israel's national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, said that "for every Jew killed, the enemy must bear the loss of land and homes", calling for the adoption of Israel's strategy of razing entire cities in the Gaza Strip in the West Bank as well.

The calls come after armed Israeli settlers, escorted by the military, raided the Palestinian village of Tell amid surging settler violence in the occupied West Bank. 

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Four members of the Saifi family were killed by Israeli fire, after the Israeli military claimed one of them seized a weapon from a settler, subsequently shooting the settler to death.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 87 Palestinians have been killed in the territory in 2026 by Israeli fire, including 21 killed by settlers.

Zvi Sukkot, a member of Smotrich's Religious Zionism party, also called for destruction, telling Channel 14 News on Friday that the village of Tell "needs to become ruins", while on the same day posting on his Facebook page a black screen with the caption: "Revenge."

Israeli settler militia, Hilltop Youth, echoed the call. 

Messages reviewed by Middle East Eye from a settler group chat included appeals to "erase the village of Tell" shortly after news of the killings emerged. 

"We want revenge. Not settlements, not promises of more housing units," one message read.

"We want to see blood. There is no comfort without revenge," the message read, with an attached picture of a river of blood.

Elchanan Groner, a prominent hilltop settler, said that "the village of murderers, Tell, must be erased now", while in a tribute to the hilltop settler who died, Groner wished "to avenge your pure blood".

'Settle the score' 

Netanyahu said on his X account that "we will pursue terror everywhere," adding that Israel "will settle accounts with them".

The prime minister added that he instructed the Israeli military to demolish the family home of the Palestinian man who killed the settler and to act swiftly and powerfully against other villages in the area. 

Netanyahu also said that he had ordered the acceleration of regularisation and establishment of more settler outposts, from which many settler attacks - including the one in Tell - originated.

In response to the clashes, which Israel is defining as a terror attack, Haaretz reported on Friday that the Israeli army mobilised troops in the West Bank for a large-scale operation around Nablus in the northern part of the Palestinian territory.

According to a report by the Palestinian news agency Wafa, the Israeli army has so far arrested 66 Palestinians across the West Bank, including 30 Palestinian civilians who were detained in Tell.

The military closed the entrances to Tell and to the nearby Burin village, while fully encircling the city of Nablus, Haaretz reported on Saturday morning.

The Israeli army reportedly raided Palestinian homes in different communities in the West Bank, detaining civilians and conducting searches, with Palestinian reports indicating military vandalism.

The Israeli army also raided a hospital in Nablus, Quds News Network reported on Friday, with the military saying they arrested two Palestinians who were involved in the violent clashes in Tell earlier that day.

Settler attacks

Meanwhile, settlers raided Palestinian communities across the West Bank as well, after Israeli leaders and settler organisers called for revenge against Palestinians.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported on Friday that eight Palestinians had been injured, including one in critical condition, during a settler attack on the village of Far'ata near Qalqilya, with Palestinians saying settlers set homes on fire and threw stones. 

In addition, the PRCS said that three other Palestinians were injured on Friday during a settler raid on the town of Sarra, near Nablus, with Palestinian reports saying settlers set homes on fire and damaged Palestinian property in the town.

Quds News Network reported on violent settler attacks at additional locations, including in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, and in the villages of Awarta and Urif, near Nablus, where settlers reportedly set fire to property and uprooted olive trees.

Quds News Network also reported that in the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan, near Salfit, settlers seized a home and raised the Israeli flag over it.

Wafa news agency reported on similar attacks by settlers on the village of Birin, east of Hebron, the village of Abu Njeim, southeast of Bethlehem, and on Kafr Malik's water infrastructure in the Ramallah governorate.

Haaretz reported on more settler attacks on the villages of Jit, Iraq Burin, and Tell in the Nablus area, while settlers reportedly stabbed and injured a Palestinian man in Wadi al-Mu'arrajat in the Jordan Valley.

middleeasteye.net