Arabic version: إدانة نتنياهو تُرى كغطاء لتوسّع الاستيطان
According to Al Jazeera, coordinated Israeli settler attacks across the occupied West Bank over the weekend injured dozens of Palestinians and set property on fire, while Israeli police and soldiers offered little or no response. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned what he called “criminal acts of violence” in Qusra and Jalud and said authorities should arrest those responsible.
In Qusra, south of Nablus, dozens of settlers attacked a Palestinian home with tear gas and stones, injuring seven people, while an ambulance attempting to reach besieged families was also attacked. A Palestinian family and an NBC news crew were assaulted in Jalud, and two Palestinians were beaten near the Mevo Dotan settlement in Arrabeh. Israeli forces also fired tear gas during incursions in several locations and attacked journalists in Hebron’s Old City.
Despite footage reported by Israeli media showing masked settlers entering Qusra and Jalud in open pickup trucks, the West Bank police district under Moshe Pinchi made no arrests, Al Jazeera reported. President Isaac Herzog called the events a “red line”, while opposition leader Yair Lapid described the violence as a “moral stain” and the government’s failure to address it as a “national disgrace”.
Analyst Ehab Jabareen told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu’s condemnation was part of a “political surgical isolation process” designed to portray violence as the work of a small number of offenders while protecting the wider settlement project. Security assessments by Major General Avi Bluth, head of the Israeli military’s Central Command, warned that such attacks could provoke a major Palestinian response.
Meanwhile, settlement expansion has continued. Peace Now said the settler population has grown from about 110,000 in the West Bank and 140,000 in East Jerusalem three decades ago to 465,000 and 230,000 respectively. A 2025 European Union report said Israel approved 54 new West Bank settlements that year, alongside 86 outposts and 63,311 housing units. OCHA recorded more than 1,540 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage this year.
