Young settler extremists rioted in Palestinian towns across the West Bank on Friday afternoon, as a funeral was held for an Israeli civil security squad member who was shot dead by a Palestinian who managed to snatch his gun while fending off a settler raid of his village.

Settler rampages were reported in over a dozen villages across the northern West Bank, where several hundred Israelis hurled stones, torched homes and reportedly wounded over a dozen Palestinians.

Weekends regularly see an uptick in settler violence, as hundreds of national religious yeshiva students often join friends living in illegal outposts throughout the West Bank from which they descend to carry out attacks on Palestinians in larger numbers than during the week.

But this weekend is poised to be particularly violent after the Friday morning gunfight in the northern West Bank village of Tell. A group of settlers — some well underage and accompanied by armed adults — raided the town, claiming they were on a hike, though the army later said that the visit into Areas A and B where Israelis are barred had not been coordinated.

Palestinians sought to repel the raiding settlers and a clash broke out, with one of the Palestinians managing to snatch the weapon of Benayahu Mellet, a 32-year-old member of the neighboring Havat Gilad settlement’s civil security squad.

A gunfight ensued, with the Palestinian fatally shooting Mellet along with Maj. Yuval Ezra, an IDF officer who had been dispatched to the scene.

مئات المستوطنين يشنّون هجومًا على قرية صرّة غرب نابلس. pic.twitter.com/IPjqmjG8IX — Hisham Abu Shaqrah | هشام أبو شقرة (@HShaqrah) July 24, 2026

مئات المستوطنين يشنّون هجومًا على قرية صرّة غرب نابلس. pic.twitter.com/IPjqmjG8IX

— Hisham Abu Shaqrah | هشام أبو شقرة (@HShaqrah) July 24, 2026

Ezra managed to shoot dead the attacker before succumbing to his wounds, and three other Palestinians were also killed in the gunfight. In addition, two Israelis — one critically and one seriously — and four Palestinians were wounded, three of whom critically.

The punishment: More settlements

Mellet was laid to rest in Havat Gilad later Friday afternoon. A reserves commander in the Jerusalem Brigade’s 8119th Battalion, the master sergeant received a military burial because he was recognized as a fallen soldier. Ezra will be buried on Sunday.

Coalition lawmakers and government ministers were present at the Friday funeral, including Yitzhak Wasserlauf, Orit Strock, Ze’ev Elkin, Limor Son Har Melech and Amit Helvi.

Mellet’s widow, Esther, said they were together for 14 years before it all “ended in a moment.”

“You always leapt at being the first one to go anywhere,” she said in her eulogy. “This time as well, there was no question. It was clear to me that you were there.”

“I wasn’t worried when I saw the helicopters [responding to the clash], because you always came back. Just this time you didn’t come back at all,” she lamented.

Mellet’s father, Boaz, called in his eulogy for Israel, in the final days of the current right-wing government’s........

© The Times of Israel