Following an emergency meeting with top security officials, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Tuesday a series of measures he said were aimed at curbing settler violence against Israeli troops and security forces in the West Bank.
“We will not allow or accept such serious incidents in any form,” Katz said at the Monday night meeting, according to a Defense Ministry statement, vowing significant police enforcement and the creation of a joint task force led by the police in coordination with the IDF and Shin Bet to address the phenomenon.
Katz also approved tens of millions of shekels for social programs aimed at integrating extremist settler youth into normative educational frameworks and said a follow-up meeting would be held in three weeks to assess progress.
The meeting came after a string of recent attacks by Jewish extremists, including a riot outside an army base and arson at a nearby security installation overnight Sunday.
Senior IDF and police commanders, Shin Bet officials, and the Defense Ministry’s legal adviser attended the session.
While participants at the Monday meeting stressed that the majority of settlers are not involved in violence, they warned of a radical fringe deliberately targeting security forces and Palestinians, the statement said.
Officials made no comment as to whether the new efforts would extend to extremist attacks on Palestinians, which have become an increasingly common occurrence.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the violence against troops this week, as did settler leaders, with the head of the Yesha Council umbrella group calling on police to find and charge those responsible for the arson attack as quickly as possible.
Opposition chiefs said the attackers were “Jewish terrorists” who felt they could act with impunity due to tacit support from members of the government.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said that “terrorists are terrorists.”
“These are Jewish terrorists, a gang of criminals, who feel they have the support of the coalition. Anyone who uses force against IDF soldiers should be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law,” Lapid told Army Radio on Monday.
The new steps came after dozens of Jewish extremists set fire to a security installation and rioted outside a West Bank base overnight Sunday-Monday, days after the local battalion commander was assaulted by settlers.
Members of the crowd held up a sign declaring “The battalion commander is a traitor.”
A military official said some of the settlers tried to break into the Binyamin Regional Brigade military base in the central West Bank, threw rocks and sprayed mace at troops, and slashed the tires of army vehicles.
Additionally, settlers torched a multi-million-shekel security installation used to “thwart terror attacks and maintain security” in the Ramallah area, according to the IDF.
Security services evacuated and demolished five illegal settlement outposts on Monday, including the Har Hatzor outpost, which was the scene of severe settler violence against IDF personnel on Friday night.
In that incident, throngs of rioting settlers attacked soldiers, including a high-ranking officer, at the Palestinian village of Kafr Malik near Ramallah, after the forces arrived there to prevent them from rampaging in the village. Six Israelis were arrested following the violence.
Then on Saturday, a police outpost was vandalized by settlers in what authorities said was an apparent act of revenge for the arrest of the six suspects accused in the nighttime attack. The assailants tried to torch the police post in the West Bank settlement of Beit El, causing damage to the door, and spray-painted “Fire of revenge” on it, according to police.
Settler attacks on Palestinians throughout the West Bank take place on a near-daily basis with impunity, with suspects rarely detained and prosecution even more uncommon. The situation has sparked rising international criticism and mounting sanctions from Western governments.
Last year, Katz ended the policy of administrative detentions — holding a person practically indefinitely without charge — for extremist settlers, while leaving it in place for Palestinians. The tool is typically used when authorities believe they have intelligence tying a suspect to a crime but do not have enough evidence for charges to hold up in a court of law.
The head of the Israel Police’s West Bank division is under investigation for ignoring settler violence, allegedly in order to curry favor in the eyes of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. He was allowed to return to his post, despite the ongoing investigation.