Herzog warned PM of ‘severe consequences’ for Israel, Jews from unchecked settler violence

President Isaac Herzog sent a warning letter last month to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials, warning of a “highly explosive and dangerous reality” in the West Bank, and lamenting the ongoing “moral disgrace” of settler violence.

“The IDF commanders, the police officers and the Shin Bet personnel present a worrying picture of limited tools and a shortage of manpower,” wrote Herzog to Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Israel Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in an October 8 letter obtained by The Times of Israel on Wednesday.

Herzog warned that elections in Israel, the US and the Palestinian Authority — the latter of which was subsequently postponed — along with the olive harvest season, “create a highly explosive and dangerous reality.”

“A severe flare-up on the ground is liable to carry severe and far-reaching consequences, both for Israel’s security and its functioning as a sovereign state, and for Israel’s international standing, Diaspora Jewry, the Israeli economy, and more,” warned Herzog, referencing new sanctions regimes that are being set up in roughly a dozen Western countries over Israeli policy in the West Bank.

Herzog wrote the letter after a September 30 visit to the Judea and Samaria Division headquarters.

Settler violence has surged in recent months, with daily attacks and harassment, and few perpetrators charged or convicted. The attacks, some of which have targeted diplomats or press, have sparked widespread international backlash.

Herzog said the perpetrators should be treated by authorities as members of an organized crime group, though he stops short of calling the perpetrators terrorists.

“We must employ the full array of tools available to the state to dismantle the criminal organizations that are running rampant” in the territory, Herzog continued. “There is no room for this lawlessness in a sovereign state.”

He called for a comprehensive plan to fight the perpetrators, including a mass deployment of security forces, widespread arrests and administrative detentions. The latter step has been outlawed by Katz, who has boasted ending the practice of detaining suspects indefinitely without due process against Jews while accelerating its use against Arabs.

“Without visible enforcement and real deterrence, we will arrive at a disaster,” Herzog warned.

The president also called for an inter-ministerial team to address the phenomenon, which would integrate welfare, education, and local government officials.

“In light of a certain leniency regarding arrests and the release of detainees,” a dialogue must be held with the attorney general, police, and the judiciary, he wrote. “The responsibility upon us is a national and state responsibility of the highest order,” he stressed. “We must not delay it for reasons that are irrelevant.”

Settlers reportedly torch vehicles, fields near Hebron; no arrests made

The letter does not appear to have sparked a major change in policy, as settler attacks have continued unabated in the month-plus since it was sent.

On Wednesday, Palestinian media reported that settlers set fire to several vehicles and fields near the village of Beit Ummar in the Hebron area.

No injuries were reported, and no arrests were made.

عاجل | مستوطنون يحرقون مركبات بمنطقة "واد الشيخ" في بلدة بيت أمر، شمال الخليل. pic.twitter.com/wQ9OqqoJIV

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) November 4, 2026

Settlers establish illegal outpost inside Palestinian city of Jericho; army laments lack of coordination

Many of the attacks have been tied to the mushrooming of over 250 illegal outposts across the West Bank, often intentionally established in areas near vulnerable Palestinian villages, whose residents subsequently report coming under constant harassment. Several thousand Palestinians have been forced to flee their West Bank villages for fear of their lives over the past three years since Hamas’s October 7 attack in Gaza.

Wednesday saw the establishment of yet another illegal outpost, but this time inside the Palestinian city of Jericho.

Several dozen settler activists took up residence in eight homes in the Palestinian city of Jericho, which they claimed to have purchased with the cooperation of the Benyamin Regional Council, a state-funded settlement municipal authority.

The Nachala settlement organization and the Benyamin regional council claimed they jointly coordinated the project to buy the properties in secret, though, IDF forces escorted the families to their new homes on Wednesday.

Settler groups have been accused of pressuring Palestinians and falsifying documents in order to carry out such takeovers of Palestinian property, with such cases more common in the West Bank city of Hebron.

The new outpost is located in Area C of the West Bank, where Israel has full control, but is just meters from parts of Jericho which are in Area A of the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority is meant to have full security and civilian control.

The Benyamin Regional Council claimed the buildings are on state land, which is not privately owned.

Regional Council head Israel Ganz said in announcing the development that the step was part of efforts to “dismantle the Oslo Accords,” the 1990s Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement that established the PA.

“In the Oslo Accords, Israel abandoned [Jericho], and to this day, we are paying the price for that flight. Today, we are beginning to reverse course. We are dismantling the Oslo Accords through our actions — house by house, family by family,” said Ganz.

Two Palestinian residents of Jericho live nearby told The Times of Israel that the settlers blocked off the area when they entered their new homes, and that the IDF has not allowed Palestinian residents to return to dozens of homes nearby or access surrounding agricultural land.

According to the Palestinians, the settlers also opened fire as they entered. Footage showed a left-wing Israeli activist assisting a Palestinian with a head injury sustained during the incident.

Peace Now, which opposes the expansion of settlements, described the development as “a security danger and diplomatic catastrophe” and said it will create “apartheid” inside Jericho.

“Establishing a settlement in Jericho could create a reality similar to that which exists in Hebron, placing an immense burden on the IDF to protect an Israeli population in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood,” said the organization, calling on the IDF to remove the settlers from the homes immediately.

Despite soldiers reportedly assisting the settlers in the move-in, the IDF claimed that the entry was not coordinated with the army.

“The acquisition process and the security implications stemming from it are currently being examined by the relevant authorities,” the IDF said in a statement on the incident.