The Israeli military has launched “counterterrorism” operations and ordered a curfew in the occupied West Bank following a deadly clash in which six people were killed.Four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed on Friday as Israeli forces and settlers clashed with Palestinians southwest of the city of Nablus.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3US court affirms release of pro-Palestine scholar as legal battle continueslist 2 of 3Israel carries out blasts across south Lebanon despite ‘ceasefire’ deallist 3 of 3Trillion dollar US defence bill would deepen military ties with Israelend of listPalestinian sources reported that the violence was sparked as Israeli settlers attacked the town of Tal, which is close to the illegal Israeli settlement of Havat Gilad. Local and security sources said that the settlers opened live fire as Palestinians tried to protect their homes.The Israeli army said it had dispatched troops to the area following “an attack on Israelis hiking in the area”.Four other Palestinians were injured in the attack on the town of Tal, “three of them critically”, as well as two Israelis, Palestinian health officials said.Shortly afterwards, the Israeli military announced it was preparing a major “counter-terror” operation in the West Bank, and had “more arrests to carry out”. Troops were then reported to have surrounded Nablus.Essam Saifi, a local leader in the Palestinian Fatah party from Tal, told the Reuters news agency ⁠in a phone call that about 25 to 30 Israeli settlers initially attacked the eastern ⁠area of the town and tried to break into ⁠two houses there. The residents came out to confront them, and the settlers opened fire.Half an hour later, Saifi said, the Israelis returned ‌and attacked the western part of the town, striking a child with a weapon. This caused chaos, and the Israeli military ‌arrived and ‌started shooting, along with the settlers, he added.The military claimed a Palestinian had stolen a weapon from local security personnel and fired at the Israeli settlers, wounding several Israelis.It added that four Palestinians were killed “on the spot”, including the one who did the shooting.The military later reported that two soldiers were killed close to Tal during “operational activity”.Reporting from Nablus, Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim said Friday’s incident took place after Israeli settlers stormed Tal under the “pretext that they were hiking in the area”.“Given what we’ve been seeing time and again in these attacks, it’s the settlers who are armed, who are provoking Palestinians and stealing their land. Sometimes, we see these settlers pull up in caravans and start putting up temporary tents that later become illegal Israeli settlements,” Ibrahim said.After the incident, Israeli forces imposed a security cordon around Nablus and Tal.“In these situations, the Israeli army generally prevents the injured Palestinians from accessing medical help by setting up siege-like conditions around the city,” Ibrahim said. “And that’s what we’re seeing right now, as all checkpoints leading to Tal have been closed.”‘A renewed image of the ongoing Nakba’A total of five Palestinian villages surrounding Nablus were attacked by Israeli settlers on Friday, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.Nablus is one of the most violent parts of the West Bank, with Israeli settlers, with the support of security forces, accused of regular attacks and persecution against Palestinians.The rate of new settlements and violence has accelerated dramatically since the recent wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran broke out.According to the Palestinian health ministry, the killings in Tal bring the toll to 87 Palestinians killed by Israelis across the West Bank since the beginning of the year, including 21 shot by settlers.United Nations figures indicate some 850 Palestinians have been wounded in the context of attacks by Israeli settlers since the start of the year.The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the latest killings in the “strongest terms”.“The Ministry affirms that this massacre represents a renewed image of the ongoing Nakba to which our Palestinian people are subjected, and reflects the integration of crimes and roles and the deliberate escalation of these coordinated crimes between the occupation authorities and their forces and settler gangs,” it said in a post on X on Friday.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to respond firmly to the Israeli deaths.In a post on X, Netanyahu said that he and Defence Minister Israel Katz had instructed the army to take a “series of forceful steps against terror”.He said these steps include: demolishing the home of the Palestinian reportedly responsible for the death of the Israeli near Tal; collecting weapons and revoking work permits in Palestinian villages he claimed “serve as terror hotspots”; bolstering Israeli forces across the West Bank; setting up checkpoints; and accelerating the regularisation of farms and the establishment of new ones.Netanyahu added that they will allow Israeli security forces to “operate freely and at full strength”.Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on the army to act with an “iron fist” against the Palestinian town and its surroundings.“The people of the farms and the heroic settlement pioneers are the defensive wall of the State of Israel. We will continue to strengthen and honour them for their steadfast stand for our existence,” he said in a post on X.