Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday blasted violence perpetrated by Jewish
In his first public comments on the violence that has been marring the West Bank for months, Netanyahu told a weekly cabinet meeting that Israel "will take very forceful action against the riots against IDF soldiers — against Paleostinians, and against IDF soldiers — because we are a nation of laws, and a nation of laws acts in accordance with the law."
Netanyahu called the
Settler violence has been a near-daily occurrence in the West Bank, with little to no law enforcement to stop attacks on Paleostinians.
Hours after Netanyahu’s comments Sunday, police said that they had detained three Jewish settlers who, armed with makeshift weapons, had entered a closed military zone en route to a Paleostinian village a day earlier.
Police said the suspects tried to evade arrest and that one of them, a minor, was freed to house arrest while the other two remained in jug.
Last week, amid a spate of brazen and
"We are aware of the recent
The IDF chief added that the
According to UN figures published earlier this month, attacks against Paleostinians carried out by settlers in the West Bank hit an all-time high in October, the largest figure since it began tracking such incidents in 2006.
The UN alleged that Israeli settlers carried out at least 264 attacks against Paleostinians in the West Bank during that month, and that around 1,500 such incidents have been recorded so far in 2025.
The IDF figures differ from those reported by the UN, but also show a marked rise. During October, the IDF recorded 86 incidents of "nationalistic crime" compared with 25 in the same period last year. And since the beginning of the year, 704 incidents of "nationalistic crime" have been recorded by Israeli defense authorities, compared with 675 in all of 2024.
Violence against Paleostinians often rises during olive-picking season, which began in early October. There have been a string of attacks by settlers and soldiers on olive pickers, who sometimes include Israeli, Jewish and other volunteers from abroad.
On Wednesday, Israeli settlers allegedly torched and defaced a mosque in a Paleostinian village in the central West Bank. A day earlier, dozens of settlers allegedly launched a large-scale arson attack on Paleostinians, targeting factories and farmland between the major cities of Nablus and Tulkarem.
President Isaac Herzog last week described the attacks as "shocking and grave."
Herzog said the violence committed by a "handful" of perpetrators "crosses a red line," adding that "all state authorities must act decisively to eradicate the phenomenon and to strengthen the IDF fighters and security forces who protect us day and night."
The growing number of incidents has also grabbed attention in Washington. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...said last week that the White House was concerned about "events in the West Bank spilling over and creating an effect that could undermine what we’re doing in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
."
Despite the vows in Israel to crack down on the phenomenon, three of the four Israeli suspects who were arrested over the Tuesday arson attack were released from police custody a day later.
As the number of settler attacks climbs, police investigations of Jewish nationalist violence in the West Bank have sharply declined over the past three years, according to figures reported by Channel 12 news.
The commander of the police’s West Bank division is under investigation for ignoring settler violence in order to curry favor with far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the police. The commander was allowed to return to the police force as the probe into his conduct continues.
Under Ben Gvir, there has been a 73 percent decline in the number of investigations opened since 2023, according to Channel 12. Police have opened only 60 investigations into settler violence this year, compared to 150 cases in 2024 and 235 cases in 2023.
About 94% of all investigation files opened by the Israel Police into settler violence from 2005 to 2024 ended without indictment, according to monitoring by Israeli human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
group Yesh Din. Since 2005, just 3% of the investigation files opened into settler violence have led to full or partial convictions.
PM says Israel will ‘act with full force against riots against Palestinians and soldiers’
[IsraelTimes] Speaking to his cabinet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasts violence carried out by Jewish extremists in the West Bank.
Israel, he says, “will act with full force against the riots against IDF soldiers — against Palestinians, and against IDF soldiers — because we are a state of law, and a state of law acts according to the law.”
Netanyahu calls the extremists “a minority that goes into Judea and Samaria and does not represent the large community of law-abiding, loyal settlers.”
Settler violence has been occurring on a near-daily basis in the West Bank with little to no law enforcement to stop attacks on Palestinians.
Netanyahu also rejects violence against elected officials.
“Just yesterday there was violence of this sort against our colleague, MK [Yoav] Ben Tzur,” he says, referring to attacks last night by Haredi youths. “This is a very small minority; it does not represent the ultra-Orthodox public. But we must fight these violations of the law with full force, and that is what we will do.”
Netanyahu says that he expects elections to be held at the end of the coming year, amid speculation that his government could collapse before the end of its term or that he could call early elections.