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Mounting violence in West Bank sparks alarm as senior Israelis accuse far-right ministers of fanning conflict
latest escalation saw Israeli settlers attack several Palestinian towns and villages overnight Saturday, torching two mosques, a home, and numerous vehicles
Mounting violence and destruction in the West Bank has sparked growing alarm among Israeli and Palestinian officials alike, with senior Israeli figures now directly accusing far-right government ministers of fanning the flames of conflict.
The latest escalation saw Israeli settlers attack several Palestinian towns and villages overnight Saturday, torching two mosques, a home, and numerous vehicles, and leaving behind graffiti promising “revenge” for the killing of an Israeli in a deadly clash on Friday.
The attacks come two days after a clash between settlers and Palestinians near the village of Tal, which left four Palestinians and two Israelis dead.
Both sides accused the other of provoking the violence.
Benayahu Mellet, a member of a settler civilian security team, and IDF officer Maj. Yuval Ezra were killed during the confrontation in the Palestinian village of Tell.
Some Israeli and Palestinian commentators called for the deaths of all those killed in the clashes to be treated similarly, amid political attempts to label Palestinians as “terrorists” rather than victims of the clashes.
“No society can build justice or security on double and triple standards,” wrote the respected Palestinian activist Samer Sinijlaw.
“The rule of law must apply equally to everyone. Civilian lives have equal value. Accountability cannot depend on nationality, ethnicity, or political identity. If we truly seek peace, we must begin with one universal principle: the same standards, the same laws, and the same humanity for every person.”
The subsequent wave of settler attacks, described by witnesses as coordinated and relentless, has deepened fears of a wider conflagration in the occupied territory.
Palestinian media reported that settlers raided Qusra, south of Nablus, overnight and set fire to the under-construction Al-Rahma Mosque.
Footage from the scene showed the mosque ablaze, with spray-painted Hebrew graffiti reading “Benayahu’s Revenge,” a Star of David, and other messages.
Qusra Mayor Abdul Azim Wadi told the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency WAFA that wooden materials and construction equipment were destroyed.
The graffiti appeared to reference Mellet, who was killed during Friday’s deadly exchange of fire, along with Maj. Ezra and four Palestinians.
Elsewhere, a mosque in the village of Kur near Tulkarm was also set alight, with graffiti left on its walls reading “Jewish blood is not free.” Videos also showed unidentified individuals attempting to set fire to a house near Nablus.
The violence has again not been limited to property destruction. The Sunday Times’ Christina Lamb reported on the killing of seven-month-old Sam Salameh in the West Bank, an incident the IDF now says was a “mistake.”
The military had previously claimed its troops perceived a vehicle accelerating toward them, but video obtained by Israeli human rights group B’Tselem showed the family car had stopped.
The bullet struck the baby in the head after passing through his father’s hand. The IDF said the incident was under serious investigation by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division.
The wave of settler violence has drawn international attention and condemnation.
According to Palestinian reports, at least two villages in the West Bank were attacked by settlers overnight, with cars vandalized, property stolen, and hate graffiti daubed on walls.
In Sarra, a village neighboring Tell, six homes were torched and more than a dozen others attacked with stones, residents say. Hanan Turabi, who fled her burning house with her four children, described scenes of chaos as “crowds of settlers ran towards us across the hillside. We tried to escape but they followed us and threw stones,” she told the BBC.
Kaied Ahmad Turabi, visiting from Miami, was injured while trying to defend his family and neighbours. “I worked all my life with Jewish people, but these people… all had covered faces, carrying sticks and other things. They came ready,” he said in an interview with the BBC.
The Israeli military said it was working to prevent “incidents of nationalist crime,” its term for attacks by extremist settlers. Y
et, some critics note that while Israeli leaders publicly condemn such violence, the government has overseen a rapid expansion of wildcat settlement outposts, which human rights groups say fuels attacks on Palestinians.
In a move that further inflamed tensions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to speed up the legalisation of farm outposts after Friday’s killings, and new settlements have already emerged near Sarra.
Significantly, former Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon accused far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir of actively encouraging the violence.
In a blistering post on X, Ya’alon alleged that the ministers and their supporters “encourage, fund, and arm Jewish pogromists” to dispossess Palestinian communities and provoke further conflict.
He added:”Who is surprised by the fact that the government of the October 7 massacre is fomenting war in Judea and Samaria? Smotrich, Ben Gvir, and their people are pleased with the division of the war, in order to advance the coming of the Messiah; the supreme person responsible for the massacre is looking for a way to postpone the elections. ”
Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, settler violence in the West Bank has sharply escalated.
The UN reports that over 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since then, the vast majority by Israeli forces, but at least 35 in settler attacks. Forty-one Israelis — civilians and security personnel — have also died in Palestinian attacks or during military operations in the territory.
The long-standing settlement policy remains contentious. Israel has built hundreds of settlements housing around 700,000 Jews in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the 1967 war, on land Palestinians want for a future state. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them, often in conditions of increasing insecurity.
Amid the mounting violence, more than 550 retired Israeli generals and intelligence officials published an open letter urging the US to pressure Israel to crack down on settler attacks.
“Unless arrested swiftly and decisively, escalating violence in the West Bank is poised to ignite the region and carries severe ramifications for both Israeli security and US regional interests,” wrote Matan Vilnai, a retired major general and member of the Commanders for Israel’s Security group.
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