Report: Shin Bet chief warns West Bank could erupt, given rise in settler violence

29 October 2023, 10:02 pm

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Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet security service, at a memorial service marking 27 years since the assassination of late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, held at Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem on November 6, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Shin Bet head Ronen Bar has warned the war cabinet and the defense establishment has warned the wider cabinet of “fears about an eruption” of violence in the West Bank, Channel 12 reports.

“The specific warning notes a rise in violence by settlers [and] incidents between settlers and Palestinians that result in the deaths of Palestinians.”

It says the US and EU are also warning that the West Bank is at a boiling point.

“These incidents are likely to set the area alight” and harm the war effort against Hamas, the report quotes Israeli sources as saying. It says some Israeli “decision-makers” are urging far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir “to take responsibility and calm things down.”