‘We failed’: IDF finds it didn’t act sufficiently to prevent deadly settler rampage
Probe finds army sent troops to West Bank village of Jit after receiving prior alert, but was unable to fully understand situation; troops helped Palestinians escape
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
An IDF investigation into a deadly terror attack carried out by some 100 Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Jit earlier this month has found that troops who arrived first at the scene did not act as expected to stop the assailants, according to findings released Wednesday.
The Israel Defense Forces also dismissed two members of a nearby outpost’s local security team for acting “outside the scope of their authority” during the incident.
According to the military’s probe, the IDF received an alert from the Shin Bet in the evening hours of August 15 about a group of Israelis in vehicles heading to carry out a “nationalistic crime” in the Yitzhar area.
A large number of troops and Border Police officers were dispatched to the area, in an attempt to prevent an attack from happening, the probe found.
At around 8 p.m., a group of 100 masked Israeli settlers entered Jit and set fire to three cars and two buildings. They also hurled Molotov cocktails and stones.
At 8:06 p.m., the commander of the regional brigade declared that an incident had begun, and troops were dispatched to the village. Within six more minutes, the troops arrived at Jit.
“The investigation revealed that the first force was unable to fully understand the situation. It tried to disperse the rioters and prevent harm to the Palestinians, but it should have acted with greater determination,” the IDF said.
Minutes later, according to the probe, additional troops and Border Police officers arrived at the scene, and they “acted assertively while risking their lives, blocking the rioters and pushing them out of the village, while using riot dispersal means and live fire in the air.”
Half an hour after the incident began, all of the Israeli settlers were taken out of the village, the probe found.
The IDF said that troops rescued and aided Palestinian families, including women and children, during the incident. Troops helped Palestinians escape from burning homes and provided them with first aid.
The probe also found that Border Police officers stationed in the area prevented additional assailants from joining in the attack.
One Palestinian man was killed and another was wounded by gunfire in the incident. The Palestinian Authority health ministry named the slain man as 23-year-old Rasheed Seda. The Shin Bet and police have indicated that the shooting was carried out by the settlers.
Additionally, the IDF said that several members of the civilian local security team for Havat Gilad, who are not in active reserve duty, arrived at Jit at the start of the incident while in military uniform. The probe found that the security officers “acted outside the scope of authority defined for” the local security team, without elaborating on what exactly they did.
Two were dismissed from their role, and their weapons were confiscated.
No suspects were detained during the incident, but last week the police and Shin Bet arrested four, including a minor.
The three adult suspects were sent to administrative detention in the course of the investigation. They are suspected of terrorism, police have said.
Additional arrests are planned, the IDF said.
“This is a very serious terror incident by Israelis who deliberately set out to harm the residents of the village of Jit and we failed by not being able to arrive sooner to protect them,” said Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, the head of the IDF Central Command,
“The responsibility is first of all mine as the head of the system and I will do everything to improve it,” he added in remarks published by the IDF.
He also hailed the troops who later arrived at the village and rescued Palestinians who were trapped inside burning homes. “This event is still in progress and it will not be closed until we have brought the rioters to justice,” Bluth said.
The riot was condemned at the time by Israeli leaders across the political spectrum, and also drew international backlash, including from the White House and several European diplomats.
Settler violence has spiked since the October 7 massacre carried out by the Hamas terror group in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage, but violence was already on the rise before then, according to watchdogs.
Israeli authorities rarely arrest Jewish perpetrators in such attacks. Rights groups lament that convictions are even more unusual and that the vast majority of charges in such attacks are dropped.
Since October 7, troops have arrested some 4,850 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,960 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 650 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or terrorists carrying out attacks.
There have also been several cases of settlers killing Palestinians in the past 10 months, some of which are still under investigation.
During the same period, 27 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another five members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.
