The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday condemned Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken’s demand that the International Criminal Court in The Hague probe OC Central Command Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth for alleged war crimes.
“The IDF condemns the inappropriate remarks against the commander of Central Command, who acts out of operational considerations and in accordance with the law, with the security of the State of Israel and its citizens as his foremost concern,” the military stated on Sunday night.
Earlier on Sunday, Schocken labeled Bluth a “war criminal,” writing on X that “The Hague must arrest him” for ordering the uprooting of trees near the site of an Aug. 21 terrorist shooting in Samaria.
According to the post by the Haaretz publisher, IDF soldiers moved to uproot “thousands” of olive trees in Al-Mughayyir after a terrorist from the village opened fire at a group of Jewish shepherds, wounding one.
The military confirmed on Sunday that “following the serious shooting attack near the village of al-Mughayyir and the terrorist’s escape into the village—along with a series of terror attacks originating from that same village—the IDF launched intensified operational activity in the area.”
As part of this activity, the statement continued, “vegetation was cleared from an area adjacent to the Allon Road, which the terrorist had used to escape the scene. The clearing was immediately necessary to eliminate a life-threatening danger posed by the vegetation that obstructed visibility and concealed enemy movement.”
In addition, “arrest operations and searches were carried out in the area of the village, during which the terrorist responsible for the attack was apprehended,” the army added.
Al-Mughayyir, located approximately 17 miles northeast of Ramallah and 21 miles southeast of Nablus, has in recent years become a major hub for terror activity. In 2024, the village’s main mosque broadcast a speech by Hamas propaganda chief Abu Obeida, in which he called on Palestinians to expand the terrorist group’s war to Judea and Samaria.
In April 2024, Muhamad Ataollah Abu Alia, 22, a resident of the village, carried out a terrorist bombing attack near the Jewish community of Kochav HaShachar, lightly wounding an Israeli military reservist.
Schocken’s call for Bluth to be prosecuted was widely condemned by members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, many of which noted the publisher’s previous remarks hailing Palestinian terrorists as “freedom fighters” in October 2024.
Those comments caused a storm in the Jewish state and led the Israeli government to cut all official connections to Haaretz.
“This morning, the editor of a major newspaper in Israel calls a serving IDF major-general a war criminal and demands that he be arrested in The Hague,” lawmaker Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism Party), chairman of the Knesset’s subcommittee on Judea and Samaria, tweeted on Sunday.
“No media outlet bothered to report it, and the chief of staff didn’t hear or see,” said Sukkot. “The last thing that interests them is the harm to the honor of IDF officers,” he added.
Likud Party lawmaker Avichai Boaron accused the Haaretz publisher of “crossing to the side of Israel’s enemies” with his remarks against Bluth.
“We, the Israelis—the residents of Judea and Samaria—stand alongside Maj.-Gen. Bluth. After many long years of security failures, in which the graph of terror attacks and the blood flowing like water rose higher and higher, at last there is a sense of security in Judea and Samaria,” he said.
Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times in 2024, according to figures published by the Hatzalah Judea and Samaria rescue organization on Feb. 17.
Twenty-seven Israelis were murdered in Judea and Samaria last year, with more than 300 others wounded, the NGO’s annual report stated.
