LONDON: An Israeli military probe has found that an unauthorized settler “hike” preceded July’s deadly clash in the occupied West Bank village of Tell, southwest of Nablus, and that too few troops were deployed to respond to the violence. The investigation also said it could not rule out the possibility that Israeli forces shot one of the two Israelis killed. Amid the chaos, a member of a nearby settlement's civil defense squad rushed to the scene but was fatally shot, The Times of Israel reported.

The July 24 hike was held without required security coordination; the probe also found delayed reinforcements, evacuation failures and that Benayahu Mellet was left wounded for…

The military said it could not determine what killed Benayahu Mellet, finding that troops were deployed only after settlers entered and spent several hours in areas A and B, and…