A series of brazen Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank this week has provoked rare condemnation from top Israeli officials. On Tuesday, dozens of masked settlers attacked the Palestinian villages of Beit Lid and Deir Sharaf, torching vehicles and other property before clashing with Israeli soldiers. |
President Isaac Herzog called the incident “shocking and serious,” adding that “all state authorities must act decisively to eradicate the phenomenon” of extremist settler violence. Israel’s army chief, Eyal Zamir, said the military “will not tolerate the phenomena of a minority of criminals who tarnish a law-abiding public.” And Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, head of the Israel Defense Forces’ Central Command, which oversees the West Bank, called the settlers an “anarchist fringe” that was diverting the army’s resources. |
Just a day after those statements, settlers mounted another attack in a display of defiance, setting fire to a mosque in the northern West Bank and defacing it with racist graffiti. Among the messages were, “Not afraid of Avi Bluth.” |
Settler attacks have increased in the years following Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but they have been particularly brazen and frequent in recent weeks, coinciding with the traditional olive harvest season. A recent United Nations report documented at least 260 such attacks last month—the highest number since the U.N. began tracking anti-Palestinian violence in the West Bank in 2006. |
On Oct. 10, the day the Gaza ceasefire was signed, settlers attacked a group of Palestinians as they tried to harvest their olive groves, reportedly wounding 20 people. Several days later, in an incident captured on video, a 53-year-old woman was beaten with a club until she fell to the ground unconscious. In many incidents, Israeli soldiers were observed providing back-up for the attackers. |
After the arson attacks on Palestinian villages this week, four alleged perpetrators were taken into custody, but that was a rare exception. The vast majority of assailants in the recent rash of violence have not been apprehended. |
The rising tempo of attacks has also raised concerns that the violence could endanger the fragile ceasefire in Gaza. Asked about this prospect during a press availability, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “We’ll do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen.” |
But as International Crisis Group analyst Mairav Zonszein pointed out in a recent New York Times op-ed, international and regional actors also need to focus on preventing further escalation of hostilities in the West Bank itself. After all, steady attacks by settlers and continued de facto annexation of occupied territory could eventually push Palestinians to their breaking point. |
“International focus on maintaining the cease-fire in Gaza is crucial, but the West Bank must not be disconnected from these efforts,” Zonszein wrote. “If Palestinians believe there is no prospect for freedom or self-determination, their despair and frustration will only grow.” That will eventually lead to “an explosion of violence and thus potentially give Israel pretext to do in the West Bank what it has done in Gaza,” she added. |