Breaking silence, Netanyahu decries ‘criminal violence’ after settlers again attack besieged West Bank village

In his first comment on the violence in the area, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemns “the criminal acts of violence” by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian West Bank villages of Qusra and Jalud today.

In a statement, Netanyahu says the individuals are 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 says.

He does not say if any arrests were made.

Dozens of extremist Israeli settlers attacked the West Bank village of Qusra today, where they took over a Palestinian home while the family was inside, before the military was called to the scene to remove them. It was not immediately clear, however, whether any settlers remained inside the house or in Qusra.

Netanyahu asserted in December 2025 that violent settlers numbered just some 70 youths who, he said, were not even from the West Bank. In July, however, he revised that figure upward to 150 “juvenile delinquents,” who he said 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.

Israel has come under fire for rarely carrying out arrests in instances of settler violence, with indictments and convictions even more infrequent.