Police said the suspects tried to evade arrest and that one of them, a minor, was freed to house arrest while the other two remained in custody.<\/p>\n
\t Last week, amid a spate of brazen and violent incidents carried out by extremist settlers in the West Bank, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said he<\/a> \u201cstrongly condemns\u201d the recent attacks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are aware of the recent violent incidents in which Israeli civilians attacked Palestinians and Israelis. I strongly condemn them. The IDF will not tolerate phenomena of a criminal minority that besmirches a law-abiding public,\u201d Zamir said in remarks provided by the IDF.<\/p>\n The IDF chief added that the violent acts \u201ccross a red line and divert the attention of our forces from fulfilling their mission, defending the communities, and conducting offensive operations. We are determined to stop this phenomenon and will act on this matter severely until justice is done.\u201d<\/p>\n According to UN figures<\/a> published earlier this month, attacks against Palestinians carried out by settlers in the West Bank hit an all-time high in October, the largest figure since it began tracking such incidents in 2006.<\/p>\n The UN alleged that Israeli settlers carried out at least 264 attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank during that month, and that around 1,500 such incidents have been recorded so far in 2025.<\/p>\n The IDF figures differ from those reported by the UN, but also show a marked rise. During October, the IDF recorded 86 incidents of \u201cnationalistic crime\u201d compared with 25 in the same period last year. And since the beginning of the year, 704 incidents of \u201cnationalistic crime\u201d have been recorded by Israeli defense authorities, compared with 675 in all of 2024.<\/p>\n \t Violence against Palestinians often rises during olive-picking season<\/a>, which began in early October. There have been a string of attacks by settlers and soldiers on olive pickers, who sometimes include Israeli, Jewish and other volunteers from abroad.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Israeli settlers allegedly<\/a> torched and defaced a mosque in a Palestinian village in the central West Bank. A day earlier, dozens of settlers allegedly launched a large-scale arson attack<\/a> on Palestinians, targeting factories and farmland between the major cities of Nablus and Tulkarem.<\/p>\n President Isaac Herzog last week described the attacks as \u201cshocking and grave.\u201d<\/p>\n Herzog said the violence committed by a \u201chandful\u201d of perpetrators \u201ccrosses a red line,\u201d adding that \u201call state authorities must act decisively to eradicate the phenomenon and to strengthen the IDF fighters and security forces who protect us day and night.\u201d<\/p>\n The growing number of incidents has also grabbed attention in Washington. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week<\/a> that the White House was concerned about \u201cevents in the West Bank spilling over and creating an effect that could undermine what we\u2019re doing in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Despite the vows in Israel to crack down on the phenomenon, three of the four Israeli suspects who were arrested over the Tuesday arson attack<\/a> were released from police custody a day later.<\/p>\n As the number of settler attacks climbs, police investigations of Jewish nationalist violence in the West Bank have sharply declined over the past three years, according to figures reported by Channel 12 news.<\/p>\n The commander of the police\u2019s West Bank division is under investigation for ignoring settler violence in order to curry favor with far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the police. The commander was allowed<\/a> to return to the police force as the probe into his conduct continues.<\/p>\n Under Ben Gvir, there has been a 73 percent decline in the number of investigations opened since 2023, according to Channel 12. Police have opened only 60 investigations into settler violence this year, compared to 150 cases in 2024 and 235 cases in 2023.<\/p>\n About 94% of all investigation files opened by the Israel Police into settler violence from 2005 to 2024 ended without indictment, according to monitoring by Israeli human rights group Yesh Din. Since 2005, just 3% of the investigation files opened into settler violence have led to full or partial convictions.<\/p>\n Emanuel Fabian, Charlie Summers and Nurit Yohanan contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, November 16, 2025. (Screenshot\/GPO)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AFP__20251113__83WW64B__v1__HighRes__PalestinianIsraelConflict-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tPalestinians stand next to scorched copies of the Quran inside in the Hajja Hamida Mosque after it was reportedly set on fire and vandalized by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian village of Deir Istiya, in the West Bank, November 13, 2025. (Zain JAAFAR \/ AFP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AFP__20251111__83PQ7GT__v1__HighRes__PalestinianIsraelConflictSettlers-1-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tA Palestinian man uses a cellphone to record a burning truck after an alleged settler attack in the village of Beit Lid, east of Tulkarm in the West Bank on November 11, 2025. (JAAFAR ASHTIYEH \/ AFP)<\/p>\n
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