Israeli President Isaac Herzog and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir both condemned settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank on Nov. 12. Herzog had described the attacks as “shocking and serious,” adding a rare and powerful voice to what has been top Israeli officials’ heavily muted criticism of the settler violence, which involves killing and beating civilians, as well as destruction of their property, reported Al Jazeera. “I strongly condemn them,” Zamir said, insisting that the Israeli military “will not tolerate criminal behavior by a small minority that tarnishes the law-abiding public.”
On Nov. 13 a group of Israeli settlers vandalized a mosque near the town of Salfit in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency. According to many reports in recent weeks, the settlers often act under the protection of the army, but it’s not clear whether Herzog or Zamir addressed that. They could be responding to pressure from the U.S.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Nov. 12: “[C]ertainly there’s some concern about events in the West Bank spilling over and creating an effect that could undermine what we’re doing in Gaza.” He spoke following the G7 foreign ministers meeting in Hamilton, Ontario. “We don’t expect it to. We’ll do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen.” He otherwise took note of the statements by Herzog and the IDF.
Israeli forces and settlers carried out 2,350 attacks across the West Bank in October in an “ongoing cycle of terror,” the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CRRC) reported last week. CRRC head Mu’ayyad Sha’ban said Israeli forces carried out 1,584 attacks—including direct physical attacks, the demolition of homes, and the uprooting of olive trees—with most of the violence focused on the governorates of Ramallah (542 attacks), Nablus (412) and Hebron (401).
On Nov. 10, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem revealed that settlers were attacking Palestinians “daily,” including “shooting, beating and threatening residents, throwing stones, torching fields, destroying trees and crops, stealing produce, blocking roads, invading homes, and burning cars.”
