Israeli security officials told Haaretz for a story published on Tuesday that Jewish settler violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has the Palestinian territory on the “brink of explosion” as attacks on Palestinians continue to surge.
The report said that the authority of the IDF over settlers has eroded as the settlers have the backing of ministers in the Israeli government and members of the Knesset. Sources told the paper that Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz is effectively not involved with the West Bank while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself who also holds a position in the Defense Ministry, is advancing a policy of de facto annexation.
“There is no one today dealing with the West Bank. Everyone understands we are on the verge of an explosion. But no one will stand up and speak,” one security source told Haaretz. “Commanders on the ground are genuinely afraid to raise problems or enforce the law. Because they immediately become targets for extremists who enjoy backing from ministers and Knesset members.”
Israeli military intelligence has conveyed that the current settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is the most severe that it’s ever been, which aligns with a report from the UN that said that October saw the most settler attacks in any month since it began tracking the violence back in 2006. Settlers have also recently targeted IDF soldiers.
The Israeli military has also increased its military raids in the West Bank over the past two years. As of the end of October, 1,001 Palestinians, including 213 children and 20 women, have been killed in the West Bank by either the military or settlers since October 7, 2023.
One field commander speaking to Haaretz highlighted the IDF’s participation in the destruction of Palestinian agricultural land to help settlers construct illegal outposts.
“Hundreds of these ‘agricultural farms’ have been hooked up to infrastructure costing billions of shekels, and the IDF stays silent and sends soldiers to help build and guard them, even though they are illegal outposts,” the commander said. “Everyone talks about settlers uprooting Palestinians’ trees. No one talks about the number of trees the IDF uprooted from Palestinians to build these farms or to pave another access road.”
A senior IDF officer who took part in a recent military exercise with the IDF’s West Bank command told Haaretz that “one incident could ignite” all of the Palestinian territory, suggesting he fears another Palestinian uprising, or intifada. “One act of settler violence in which several Palestinians are killed could instantly turn the West Bank into a major war zone that draws the entire IDF into it,” the officer said.
One Israeli settler was killed on Tuesday by a car ramming and stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion Junction in the West Bank to the south of Jerusalem.
