Masked Israeli settlers attack Palestinian villages and IDF soldiers in the West Bank

Masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians and burned properties in two villages in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday before confronting Israeli soldiers sent to stop their rampage, Israeli military and Palestinian officials said.

“Four Palestinians were injured and evacuated for medical treatment,” the Israeli army said in a statement on Tuesday. Security forces used “riot dispersal means” to disperse the crowds in the villages of Beit Lid and Deir Sharaf “and apprehended several Israeli citizens,” the statement added.

After the masked individuals fled and regrouped near the Baron industrial zone, the IDF said civilians “attacked IDF soldiers who were operating in the area and damaged a military vehicle.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated three people who had been beaten with sticks and stones. Israeli police said four Israeli suspects were arrested and detained for questioning.

The Palestinian Economy Ministry said in a statement that preliminary investigations revealed that the attackers targeted warehouses belonging to a food production company “and smashed windows and other property.” Four trucks and two vehicles belonging to employees were set on fire, the press release added.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned what he called “shocking and serious” attacks in an article on X. “Such violence against IDF civilians and soldiers crosses a red line and I strongly condemn it,” he wrote.

Settler violence has increased since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip just over two years ago. On Friday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said settlers carried out at least 264 attacks against Palestinians in October – the highest monthly tally since the UN began tracking incidents in 2006.

Palestinians and human rights activists accuse the Israeli army and police of failing to stop settler attacks, which have intensified in recent weeks as Palestinians harvest their olive trees.

Several senior officials in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have close ties to West Bank settlers, including his ultranationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a hardline settler leader who oversees the police.

News of the attacks came after the Palestinian branch of the Switzerland-based children’s rights non-governmental organization Defense for Children International said in a statement it had obtained documents showing that a 13-year-old boy died Tuesday from tear gas inhalation.

Aysam Jihad Labib Naser was harvesting olives with his family on October 11 in the northern West Bank “when Israeli soldiers heavily bombarded the area with tear gas and fired several tear gas canisters.”

This caused him to “severely choke and collapse,” the statement said. Although he was transferred to a nearby hospital, he remained in “critical condition in the cardiac intensive care unit until his death,” the statement added.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

Elsewhere, the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza was opened on Wednesday to allow humanitarian aid trucks to enter the enclave, COGAT, the Israeli military wing that oversees aid flows, said in a statement.

U.N. humanitarian agencies have called for the crossing to be reopened to allow more aid to flow to the devastated northern part of the enclave, particularly after last month’s ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Herzog’s office confirmed Wednesday that he had received a letter from President Donald Trump urging him to consider granting Netanyahu a pardon in his long-running corruption trial.

“While I absolutely respect the independence of the Israeli judiciary and its demands, I believe that this ‘case’ against Bibi, who has fought alongside me for a long time, including against Israel’s very tough adversary, Iran, is a political and unwarranted prosecution,” Trump said, using Netanyahu’s nickname in the letter shared by Herzog’s office.

Trump has repeatedly requested a pardon from his close ally. Netanyahu denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty.

NBC News has contacted the White House for comment.