Israeli settlers attack West Bank village, receive rare rebuke from Israeli officials

Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have been on the rise in the West Bank, but Thursday’s riot in the village of Jit drew swift and unusual criticism from Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose coalition government includes West Bank settlers in senior positions.

“Dozens of Israeli civilians, some wearing masks, entered the town of Jit and set fire to vehicles and structures in the area, throwing stones and petrol bombs,” the Israeli military said in a statement. The military said its forces, along with the Israel Border Police, were dispatched to the scene and dispersed the riot by firing into the air and “chasing the Israeli civilians out of the town.”

The Palestinian Authority said one Palestinian was shot dead in the attack on the village and another was seriously injured. The Israeli military said it was “looking into” reports of a death and had opened an investigation with other security agencies into what it called “this serious incident”, adding that one rioter had been arrested and turned over to police for questioning.

The prime minister’s office issued a statement saying Mr Netanyahu “takes very seriously the riots that took place tonight in the village of Jit, including the damage to life and property caused by Israelis who infiltrated the village”. The statement pledged to find and prosecute those responsible for “any criminal acts”.

The Israeli military condemned “incidents of this type and rioters that undermine security, law and order,” and accused those involved in the violence of diverting the army and security forces “from their primary mission of preventing terrorism and protecting the security of civilians.”

The riots came as the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas stretched into its 11th month, a period that has also seen increased Israeli military activity against what it calls suspected terrorists in the occupied West Bank, as well as a rise in fierce attacks by settlers against Palestinians

At the same time, far-right ministers in Mr. Netanyahu’s government — notably Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, both West Bank settlers — have used divisive rhetoric and advanced policy to extend Israeli control on the territory.

The West Bank is home to about 2.7 million Palestinians and more than 500,000 settlers. Israel seized control of the territory from Jordan in 1967 in a war with three Arab states, and Israelis have settled there ever since with both explicit and tacit government approval, although the international community largely considers the settlements illegal and many outposts also violate Israeli law.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which monitors violence in the West Bank on a weekly basis, said in latest update on Wednesday that Israeli settlers carried out 25 attacks on Palestinians last week. Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 that sparked the Gaza war, the agency has recorded some 1,250 attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and their property.

“There has been an increase in spontaneous attacks by a minority of settlers,” David Makovsky, director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israeli relations at the Washington Institute, said in an interview. “The West Bank is a matchbox. It’s not the front you’re looking at, but it’s another front in the war.”

Few, however, have received the immediate approval from Israeli officials that followed the Jit attack.

In July, an outgoing Israeli general issued a a harsh reprimand about government policies in the West Bank and condemned the growing “nationalist crimes” of Jewish settlers. Retired Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuks, the former head of Israel’s Central Command, said in his departure speech that the actions of a violent minority threaten Israel’s security, undermine its reputation internationally, and sow fear among Palestinians—and he argued that it did not reflect his understanding of Judaism.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed a similar sentiment on Thursday in response to the riots in Jit. “This is not our way and certainly not the way of Torah and Judaism,” Herzog said in a social media post accused an “extremist minority” of settlers of damaging Israel’s standing in the international community at a “particularly sensitive and difficult time”.

Aaron Boxerman And Johnatan Reiss Contribute report.