Israeli soldiers arrested nearly 50 Palestinians in the village of Tal, near the city of Nablus, on Saturday, July 25, 2026. They raided about 70 homes. The military called it an "extensive" operation and said it was in response to a shooting the day before that killed four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers Al Jazeera. That Friday shooting happened near a settlement called Havat Gilad and also wounded three Israeli soldiers. The Associated Press confirmed that Israeli military fire killed the four Palestinians in the village, which it called Tell AP.

The West Bank is a piece of land that Israel captured in 1967. Palestinians want it for a future state. Israel has occupied it ever since, and both Israelis and Palestinians live there under different rules. It is separate from Gaza and from Israel itself.

The order for the arrests came from the top. On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz told the military to carry out a "wide-scale military operation" across Palestinian villages in the West Bank Al Jazeera. CNN reported on the deadly clashes and Israel's preparation for a major military push CNN. The Associated Press said the northern West Bank was placed in lockdown as clashes spread through villages AP.

The raids went far beyond Tal. Israeli forces also operated in Jenin, Tubas, the Far'a refugee camp, Far'ata east of Qalqilya, the Aqbat Jabr refugee camp in Jericho, and the village of Kobar near Ramallah Al Jazeera. The Palestinian news agency Wafa said soldiers raided homes in Tubas for about three hours. Al Mayadeen English reported that at least eight Palestinians were injured during the raid on Far'ata.

At the same time, Israeli settlers attacked several Palestinian communities in the Nablus area, setting fire to homes and other property, according to sources and witnesses cited by Al Jazeera. Settlers are Israeli civilians who live in communities built on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. Many countries consider these settlements illegal under international law. Footage posted by Quds News Network showed two blindfolded men being led away by Israeli soldiers during the Tal arrests.

Funerals for the four Palestinians killed in Tal were held overnight because Israeli authorities barred daytime funerals and limited how many people could attend Al Jazeera. This kind of restriction has been used in previous West Bank operations. It puts extra pressure on affected communities and makes it harder to mourn and to document who was hurt or killed.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis in the West Bank since the start of 2026. Of those, 21 were killed by settlers Al Jazeera. That means settler violence accounts for a large share of Palestinian deaths in the territory this year, and the pace appears to be rising.

On Saturday, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese called the Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank "pogroms" and called for an immediate arms embargo Al Jazeera. A "pogrom" is a word from history meaning organized mob violence against a group of people, often tolerated by authorities. An arms embargo would mean countries that sell weapons to Israel would stop doing so. That would require several governments to act together, and in the past, key allies have resisted such steps.

Albanese's statement lines up with a UN inquiry reported by Reuters on June 9, 2026. That inquiry found that Israeli forces protect settlers during attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank rather than stopping them Reuters. Issued about six weeks before Saturday's raids, the finding matches what witnesses describe: settler attacks happening near Israeli soldiers who do not step in.

The Al Jazeera article draws on many sources: Israel's military, Netanyahu and Katz, the Palestinian Health Ministry, Wafa, Al Mayadeen English, witnesses and residents, Albanese, and Israeli human rights groups. That wide range reflects how hard it is to verify information in a locked-down conflict zone where access is limited and both sides shape the narrative.

The bigger picture is a territory under mounting pressure from three directions at once: a military arrest campaign ordered by Israel's top leaders, settler attacks on Palestinian communities, and growing international condemnation. The West Bank has not been the main focus of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since October 2023. But the 2026 death toll suggests the violence here is getting worse, not settling down. The real question is whether the UN findings and statements from officials like Albanese will push arms-supplying countries to change their policies, or whether those words will stay just words without any enforcement behind them.