HRW says ‘decisive’ action needed to stop settler reprisals

Human Rights Watch has said that decisive international action is urgently needed to prevent escalating Israeli settler reprisals in the occupied West Bank. “The Israeli government didn’t prevent the settler attacks on Tal village, so now it needs to stop settler reprisals and escalating military action that will make a bad situation worse,” Sarah Sanbar, HRW Israel and Palestine researcher, said in a statement. “Years of lawlessness and impunity for attacks has turned the West Bank into a powder keg waiting to explode, and decisive action is urgently needed,” Sanbar added. Four Palestinians were killed while fending off a settler raid in the West Bank village of Tell on Friday. A Palestinian firefighter and a resident douse a fire after a tent was torched by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian village of Sarra, West Bank, on 24 July 2026. (AFP)