Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday night said he viewed with “great severity” anti-Arab riots targeting Palestinians in Judea and vowed to “personally” deal with the phenomenon.
The prime minister denounced the “violent disturbances and the attempt to take the law into their own hands by a small, extremist group that does not represent the residents of Judea and Samaria.”
In the Hebrew statement, Netanyahu vowed to “deal with this personally, and convene the relevant ministers as soon as possible to address this serious phenomenon.” He also urged law enforcement authorities to apprehend and prosecute the rioters “to the fullest extent of the law.”
“I stand by the [Israel Defense Forces] and the security forces, which will continue to act resolutely and without fear to maintain order,” Netanyahu concluded.
The IDF rushed soldiers to the Arab village of Jaba, near Bethlehem in Judea, on Sunday evening after Jewish extremists reportedly set fires and damaged homes and vehicles in the area.
According to the IDF, the attacks followed the evacuation of Tzur Misgavi, an unauthorized Jewish outpost in Judea’s Gush Etzion region.
The dismantlement of the hilltop town was ordered by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism Party), who also oversees civilian matters in Judea and Samaria, at the request of Gush Etzion Regional Council head Yaron Rosenthal, Smotrich said earlier on Monday.
The residents of Tzur Misgavi had built their homes on the hilltop without coordination with the state, according to Rosenthal, who accused them of seizing lands allocated for the construction of thousands of housing units.
Israel Ganz, chairman of the Yesha Council umbrella organization of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, also expressed his support for the evacuation, telling the Kan News broadcaster: “Where this place is located, there are three nearby communities. A group came and said, ‘I don’t care about these communities or what the state is planning.’”
Communities in Judea and Samaria “exist to serve Israel, not to create real estate assets for anyone,” said Ganz, who also heads the Binyamin Regional Council of Israeli communities across southern Samaria.
Following the evacuation of the 25 families of Tzur Misgavi, dozens of Israeli rioters descended on Jaba and nearby Arab towns, the IDF stated.
“The IDF views with severity and condemns violence of any kind, which harms security,” the military stated, noting that vigilante violence diverts soldiers’ attention from counter-terrorism operations.
Monday evening’s incident was widely condemned by Israeli officials.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the country would “not tolerate attempts by a small, violent, criminal group of anarchist lawbreakers to take the law into their own hands and tarnish the settlers, and we will not allow them to harm IDF troops, disrupt order or divert forces from their missions of protecting the citizens of Israel and thwarting Palestinian terrorism.”
“There will be no leniency toward anyone who acts violently,” Katz said, adding that in the coming weeks, the government would vote to fund the office of IDF Col. (res.) Avichai Tanami, whom he named in June as project coordinator to combat the phenomenon of extremist youth.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar tweeted, “The Jewish rioters in Judea and Samaria harm the State of Israel, disgrace Judaism, and cause damage to the settlement project. They are not us. They are not the State of Israel.
“The IDF, the Shin Bet, and the Israel Police must act decisively and firmly to stop this rampage, which is also directed at our soldiers and police officers.”
The Israel Defense Forces recorded 663 instances of violence by Jews against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria last year, a 34% decrease compared to 2023, when 1,005 incidents were recorded by the IDF.
Meanwhile, Jerusalem recorded thousands of Palestinian terrorist attacks against Jews in 2024, including many in Judea and Samaria.
Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times last year, according to figures published by the Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) NGO on Feb. 17.
Twenty-seven Israelis were murdered in Judea and Samaria in 2024, and more than 300 others were wounded, the group said in its annual report.
