Katz condemns settler violence against IDF, as 5 arrested for hurling rocks at troops
Forces attacked while trying to retrieve Palestinian car stolen by settlers; Austin tells Katz that US alarmed by his decision to end administrative detentions for settlers only
Dozens of settlers, some of them masked, hurled stones at Israeli troops and Border Police officers near the West Bank settlement of Itamar on Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces said, after violence was directed against a top IDF official in Hebron the previous night.
According to Army Radio, the attack on Saturday occurred after the IDF discovered that Israeli settlers had stolen a Palestinian-owned vehicle in the Nablus area and dispatched troops to retrieve it.
When the troops arrived at the scene, they were immediately met with violence, as settlers began to throw stones, and one punched a soldier, reports said.
The IDF said troops and police officers acted to disperse rioters, and five suspects were detained. No injuries were reported as a result of the violence.
“The IDF strongly condemns and denounces violence of any kind against security forces and views incidents of this type very gravely,” the military added in a statement.
The incident followed a similar skirmish on Friday night, when several dozen Jewish extremists who were visiting Hebron for an annual pilgrimage tried to attack the head of IDF Central Command Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, who was in the flashpoint West Bank city to secure the gathering.
Five suspects were arrested after they chased Bluth and soldiers accompanying him, calling the senior commander a traitor. The IDF said the group of young suspects had also attempted to block an exit that the military needed for operational activity.
גורמים בצה"ל: פורעים יהודים רעולי פנים יידו אבנים לעבר כח צבאי שהגיע לפזר התפרעות אלימה בהשתתפות עשרות ליד שכם. אחד מהם הכה חייל באגרוף. חמישה נעצרו@carmeldangor pic.twitter.com/h89sA2st5Z
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) November 23, 2024
Heads of Central Command have typically had a fraught relationship with settler extremists, due to the army’s efforts to keep them in check in the West Bank.
In a statement on Saturday evening, Defense Minister Israel Katz condemned the attempted attack on Bluth, and warned in a post on X that “hurting IDF commanders and soldiers, who dedicate their lives to the security of Israel and its citizens, hurts the entire State of Israel.”
“I expect law enforcement to bring those involved in the incident to justice immediately and call on settlement leadership to condemn this type of phenomenon strongly,” he added.
Both incidents of violence occurred after Katz on Friday announced an end to administrative detention orders for West Bank settlers, to praise from right-wing lawmakers.
Administrative detention allows an individual to be held without charge for up to six months at a time. The detention can be renewed indefinitely while allowing military prosecutors to keep suspects from being able to see the evidence against them. It is used in cases where security forces argue an individual represents a clear danger despite insufficient evidence to indict.
While the tool is primarily deployed against Palestinians, it has also been used against some extremist Jewish Israelis — seven of whom are still being held.
Katz’s decision marked a departure from the policies of former defense minister Yoav Gallant, who issued a total of 16 administrative detention orders for Jewish extremists during his tenure. Some 3,400 Palestinians are currently being held in administrative detention, and this will remain unchanged, as Katz’s decision will not affect the practice of detention without trial for Palestinians.
“In a reality where the Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria is subject to serious Palestinian terror threats and unjustified international sanctions are taken against the settlers, it is not appropriate for the State of Israel to take such a severe measure against the people of the settlements,” Katz said on Friday, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.
The move, welcomed by many of Katz’s coalition allies, was opposed by members of the opposition, including MK Gadi Eisenkot, a former IDF chief of staff and centrist lawmaker, who called it a “grave and dangerous mistake.”
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin raised the Biden administration’s alarm over the decision during a call with Katz on Saturday, a US official told The Times of Israel.
Despite Katz’s insistence that Jewish extremist perpetrators of violence would be prosecuted “if there is suspicion of criminal acts,” the use of administrative detention has been one of the only steps that Israeli authorities have taken against settlers suspected of violence amid near-daily attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.
The failure of Israeli authorities to clamp down on the phenomenon has led the US and other Western countries to begin issuing sanctions against extremist settler individuals and entities earlier this year.
Katz’s decision to end the practice of detention without trial against Jews only, while maintaining the practice en masse against Palestinians as well as a handful of Arab Israeli raises significant concerns about discrimination, the US official says, confirming reporting in the Axios news site.
