Breaking silence, Netanyahu decries ‘criminal violence’ after settlers again raid besieged village

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke his silence on Saturday about the ongoing wave of extremist settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, but downplayed it as the act of a “handful of rioters,” claiming it didn’t represent the broader settler public.

He issued the remarks after dozens of settlers attacked the West Bank village of Qusra and took over a Palestinian home while the family was inside. The military was called to clear the settlers from the home, but as of Sunday afternoon, no arrests appeared to have been made, and Palestinians reported being targeted with tear gas by the Israel Defense Forces.

Violence also broke out elsewhere in the West Bank on Saturday, including in Jalud where settlers were filmed attacking journalists.

In his statement, Netanyahu said the individuals who took over the home were a “handful of rioters” who are “causing a huge injustice to the law-abiding settler public, hindering the IDF in fulfilling its missions, and harming Israel’s standing in the world.”

“Security forces are working quickly, seized three vehicles, and brought an end to the incident within a short time,” Netanyahu claimed, without addressing the fact that no one was arrested. Despite Netanyahu’s statement, the Haaretz daily reported that the three vehicles seized by security forces were not the cars used by settlers in the attack.

The premier has made similar claims in the past about the nature of settler attacks on Palestinians, asserting in December that violent settlers numbered just some 70 youths who, he said, were not even from the West Bank. In July, he revised that figure upward to 150 “juvenile delinquents,” who he claimed were “brought into the West Bank.”

However, activists on the ground have said those behind the attacks are Israelis who have established illegal outposts throughout the West Bank in record numbers over the past three years. Netanyahu’s government has provided significant funding and protection to these wildcat communities, which critics say are being used as a tool to dispossess Palestinians of their lands.

Late Saturday, the Prime Minister’s Office released a two-minute long English-language video featuring office spokesman Doron Speilman, in which he also condemned the Saturday attacks, while similarly downplaying the perpetrators as a “small group of rioters, many from broken homes.” He said the assailants often do not live in West Bank settlements, without offering any evidence and despite the fact that attacks on Palestinian villages usually come from residents of neighboring settlements and outposts.

WATCH: PMO Spokesman @DoronSpielman addresses the violence in Judea and Samaria.

Israel’s position is clear: No vigilantism. Those responsible will be apprehended and brought to justice. pic.twitter.com/ARQnZFWLGw

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) August 29, 2026

Speilman further claimed that Israel has “succeeded in many ways” in preventing settler attacks, even though they have increased in frequency over the past several months and take place with impunity on a near-daily basis in Palestinian villages and towns across the West Bank.

“But as we can see, there is still more work to do,” Speilman said, adding that Netanyahu has instructed the IDF, Shin Bet and Israel Police to “apprehend the perpetrators and to bring them to justice.”

“Israel is a nation of laws,” he said, “and we will not tolerate vigilantism of any kind, by anyone.”

Residents say troops detained, beat them

Qusra, located southeast of Nablus, has been the target of a wave of recent settler attacks, including a weeks-long siege on a number of Palestinian homes, which has drawn international attention to the village. The attacks have prompted a prolonged military deployment in the area, which has itself led to the forced displacement of several Palestinian families from their homes.

The army says its forces have maintained a presence in the area to prevent settlers from rebuilding makeshift structures and again blocking access to the residents’ homes.

Footage from Saturday’s settler raid on Qusra showed that IDF soldiers were in the area when it occurred, but that they stood by and allowed the rampaging extremists to attack a home on the outskirts of the town.

בתיעוד המטריד הבא מקוסרה היום – נראים חיילים עומדים לצד המבנה לעברו המתנחלים מיידים אבנים, ולא עושים דבר .
בהמשך התיעוד נראים המתנחלים נכנסים דרך החלון לתוך המבנה. החיילים נותרים במקומם.

כאמור, הפורעים לא נעצרו.
החיילים מאידך בחרו לעצור דווקא את תושבי הבית שהותקף.

לגבי… pic.twitter.com/6v0FuzSIkQ

— Matan Golan (@MatanGolanPhoto) August 29, 2026

The clip showed settlers hurling stones at the home, while the soldiers nearby refrained from stepping in or apprehending them.

According to the Israeli military, IDF troops and Border Police officers were dispatched to Qusra after dozens of “Israeli rioters” raided the village and attacked residents, including throwing stones at Palestinians and others.

“Upon the arrival of the forces, dozens of rioters were identified barricading themselves in a Palestinian home, while there were Palestinian residents in the home,” the IDF said in a statement.

The military said troops “first worked to remove the rioters from the house and separate the populations, to protect the occupants of the house,” though it did not immediately confirm if the settlers were actually removed from the home.

But Saddam Oday, one of those trapped in the home, said that after arriving at the scene, the military fired tear gas into the home and detained the residents inside while letting him go.

He said the IDF did not detain any of the settlers and allowed them to leave.

The owner of the house, Luay Bayruti, said that when the military arrived, they handcuffed, blindfolded and beat those inside before later releasing them.

Bayruti said that after calling the military for help, he and six others were trapped inside the home for more than an hour as settlers threw stones.

Bayruti showed a Reuters reporter his bandaged arm, which he said had been injured by a stone during the attack.

Oday, a medic, said four of those trapped had suffered injuries due to the tear gas, and two had suffered injuries from the stones thrown by settlers.

The attack occurred a few hundred yards away from three homes to which settlers laid siege this month.

Loui Ridi, a Palestinian-American whose home was one of the three under siege, said the settlers “spotted the residents working on their house, which is still under construction, and they started throwing rocks.”

One of the Palestinians targeted in the attack confirmed to Haaretz that he was working on the outside of the house when the attack began.

“First, an ATV with three settlers arrived, and after fifteen minutes, dozens more came, circling the house and throwing stones at it from all directions,” he recounted.

He said it took the Israeli troops 40 minutes to arrive after they were first alerted of the attack.

The Israel Police said on Saturday night that officers in the West Bank were “continuing to investigate the violent incident that happened earlier in the area of the village of Qusra.”

The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why soldiers reportedly fired tear gas at the house and detained and beat the residents.

Police said Border Police officers and IDF soldiers worked together in Qusra “to restore order and disperse those involved.”

Officers were also dispatched to the area “to advance the investigation, while carrying out scans alongside IDF forces to locate those involved who had been dispersed.”

Police Superintendent Moshe Pinchi, chief of police in the West Bank, held an assessment with other security officials near the area where the incident unfolded, police said, adding that the Shin Bet is involved in the investigation.

Israeli forces were “focused on locating those involved and continuing to locate findings in the field, along with the seizure of the vehicles found in the field, in order to bring those involved to justice,” the statement said.

The statement indicated that officers first dispersed the “Israeli rioters” and then pursued them to carry out arrests. It did not say why no arrests were made on the scene. No subsequent arrests of settlers were reported.

Journalists attacked in Jalud

Elsewhere in the West Bank on Saturday, masked Israeli settlers were filmed attacking a Palestinian woman and a group of NBC News journalists.

The NBC crew was in the Palestinian village of Jalud to interview a woman who was recently kicked out of her home by settlers.

She and the group of journalists were walking toward the hilltop where her home is located when they were ambushed by settlers, who threw rocks at them and struck them with sticks.

???????????? ???????? Masked settlers ATTACKED an NBC News crew filming a Palestinian woman in the West Bank

The team was interviewing Aida Ahmed Abdullah, 51, in Jalud near Nablus about settlers forcing her family from their home when a vehicle with Israeli plates pulled up.

At least four… https://t.co/3WVnCHlUgE pic.twitter.com/oZrwUa5z3o

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 30, 2026

The woman, Ida Ahmed Abdullah, was evacuated from the scene for medical treatment by the Palestinian Red Crescent.

No arrests were carried out.

UK activist detained by settlers suspected of indecent acts

Separately, armed settlers handed a British citizen over to the police, who then took him into custody, after detaining him in the southern West Bank’s Umm al-Kheir.

The man was detained by the head of the security squad of “one of the settlements adjacent to Ma’on,” a recognized settlement south of Hebron, “on suspicion of performing an indecent act against a minor,” police said in response to a query.

“The suspect has been transferred to interrogation, which is still in its beginning,” police said.

The man was performing so-called protective presence with Palestinians in the area.

במהלך השבת, אנרכיסט זר בשם Finn Joughin, הטריד מינית ילד יהודי בן 10, תוך כדי שהוא מונע ממנו לעבור בשכונה שלו, ביישוב כרמל. (גם התיעוד שלנו מתחיל באיחור, התקיפה המינית המשמעותית יותר קרתה לפני שנדלקה המצלמה).

מבוגרים שנכחו במקום נאלצו להרחיק אותו באופן פיזי עד שתגיע משטרה וכרגע… pic.twitter.com/tFthfuO36z

— ככה זה עובד (@thatshow_itwork) August 29, 2026

That’s How It Works, a social media account that posts claims against such activists, published footage in which the British man can be seen holding on to a fence, next to an Arabic sign that reads “welcome to Khirbet Umm al-Kheir,” and pressing his body against that of a child in an apparent attempt to prevent the child from passing through.

A separate part of the footage showed the activist on a mattress inside a structure as a man speaking Hebrew called him an anarchist and a pedophile.

The Hebrew speaker referred to the child as a resident of Barkan, an illegal outpost in the area of Umm al-Kheir.

Settler violence has surged in recent months, with daily attacks and harassment. Prosecutions are rare, and critics accuse the IDF and Netanyahu’s government of condoning or even encouraging the violence.

The most senior IDF officer in the West Bank reportedly warned during a closed-door security assessment on Monday that mounting settler violence could ignite a broader escalation in the territory.

Noam Lehmann contributed to this report.