Benayahu Melet, 32, a father of two and member of the Havat Gilad alert squad who oversaw agricultural activity at the outpost, was identified Friday as the Israeli killed in a shooting attack near the outpost in northern Samaria. Havat Gilad officials said Melet rushed to help a group of Israeli hikers who had come under attack nearby and was shot dead by a Palestinian terrorist.
Initial reports said four Palestinians and one Israeli were killed in the incident, and at least six others were wounded. Two of the wounded were evacuated by helicopter, one with a shoulder wound, conscious and in moderate condition, and one seriously wounded in the upper body; two more lightly wounded were evacuated separately. According to details of the incident, the hikers had arrived near the village of Tel, in the Samaria Regional Brigade’s area, and were attacked by Palestinians near the village mosque. The Havat Gilad security officer rushed to the scene, and the group of Palestinians stole his weapon and shot one of the hikers with it. The IDF imposed a closure on the village of Tel and on Nablus (Shechem) following the attack.
Journalist Elisha Yered wrote on social media that, based on the hikers’ own accounts, it was the village sheik of Tel who seized the weapon and carried out the shooting, though the claim has not been officially confirmed. Yered added that the entire village had gathered in the area near the Gilad road as IDF forces conducted a painstaking search for the weapon.
Yisrael Gantz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, said the attack reflected a coordinated campaign rather than an isolated event. “The area is burning — literally and figuratively,” Gantz said. “The wave of arson, attempted attacks, and the ongoing incitement by the Palestinian Authority are all part of a single campaign aimed at harming the settlements and the citizens of Israel. These are not isolated incidents, but rather planned and continuous terror.”
Two Attacks the Day Before
Friday’s shooting followed two separate attacks a day earlier. In the first, a civilian was seriously wounded near the settlement of Elon Moreh while trying to extinguish a fire close to the Derech Avraham farming outpost. The victim, identified as Itamar Cohen, 51, one of the founders of the agricultural farm enterprise, had gone to the fire to help put it out. A clash broke out between Israelis and Palestinians at the scene, during which two Palestinian assailants stabbed Cohen in the chest before another civilian present “identified the attack and eliminated the two terrorists,” the IDF said. Magen David Adom medics treated Cohen, who was airlifted by the Israeli Air Force’s Unit 669 for further treatment.
The cause of the fire itself remained disputed. The IDF initially said Palestinians from the nearby town of Beit Furik had set the blaze, then walked that back and said the cause was unknown; police and firefighters later confirmed arson without assigning blame. The Palestinian Authority’s WAFA news agency claimed Israeli settlers had started the fire. Troops encircled Beit Furik after the stabbing and searched the area. Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan called it “a serious terror incident,” saying, “We are again and again witnesses to arson and terror attacks,” and demanded “an iron fist from the government” in response, blaming the Palestinian Authority and terror groups for inciting the violence.
Later the same day, an IDF paratrooper was lightly wounded in a second stabbing, near an army post at the site of the formerly evacuated settlement of Ganim. The attacker, identified by Palestinian media as Yazan Fakhri Sawafta, 25, of Tubas, a Palestinian Authority police officer, was shot dead by soldiers who returned fire. The IDF later raided both Beit Furik and Tubas, entering the homes of the two attackers and questioning several other suspects in the area.
That night, police at the Tunnels checkpoint between Judea and Samaria and southern Jerusalem stopped a Hebron resident who arrived on a motorcycle acting suspiciously and failed to follow instructions. Police arrested him and found a knife on him; no Israeli forces were hurt. In a separate incident earlier in the week, a Palestinian man was arrested with a knife at a checkpoint south of Jerusalem.
A Broader Surge in Violence
Violence in Judea and Samaria has surged since the Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war in October 2023. According to the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry, more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in Judea and Samaria by Israeli forces or civilians since the war began; the IDF says the vast majority were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or terrorists carrying out attacks. Over the same period, 66 civilians and Israeli security personnel have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and Judea and Samaria, and another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes during raids on Palestinian cities. The IDF also recorded 867 incidents of nationalist crime and violence by Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria in 2025, up from 682 the year before.
