Israeli security forces arrested at least eight citizens during violent riots throughout Samaria overnight Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said. Two Border Police officers were reportedly wounded in the clashes.
“The IDF views with utmost severity any violence against its personnel and the security forces, who work day and night for the security of the citizens of the area,” the army stated on Wednesday morning. “These incidents must be condemned, and lawbreakers must be prosecuted.”
The disturbances reportedly started around 2:30 a.m., when employees of the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, which governs daily life in Judea and Samaria, moved to demolish the illegal Oz Yosef outpost outside Itamar, just south of the Palestinian city of Nablus (Shechem).
According to the military, “During the evacuation, rocks were thrown at the forces, and as a result, two Border Police officers were wounded.” Following the incident in Oz Yosef, a group of Israelis was said to have entered the nearby village of Beit Furik, setting fires and hurling stones.
According to Israel’s Channel 12 News, the head of security of Yitzhar, a Jewish town in the Nablus area, had to fire warning shots in the air after unidentified masked men with batons attacked him.
At the same time, the IDF said, anti-Arab scuffles ensued in the vicinity of Huwara, a Palestinian terror hotspot some 4.5 miles south of Nablus.
Meanwhile, two miles southeast of Nablus, in Rujeib, “friction developed” after Israeli security forces arrived and attempted to disperse a group of approximately 20 Jewish activists who had entered the Arab village.
Judea and Samaria saw a dramatic rise in terror attacks by Palestinians in 2023 compared to the previous year, with shootings reaching their highest level since the Second Intifada of 2000-05, IDF data shows.
Between Oct. 7 and Jan. 15, Rescuers Without Borders first responders recorded more than 2,600 Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis in Judea and Samaria, including 760 cases of rock-throwing, 551 fire bombings, 12 attempted or successful stabbings and nine vehicular assaults.
At the same time, far-left groups are increasingly filing false complaints against Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, a representative of the Israel Police told lawmakers at the Knesset in Jerusalem earlier this year.
“Since the beginning of the war, there has been an upsurge in complaints from Palestinians and anarchists,” Judea and Samaria District Cmdr. Avishay Mualem told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.