Settlers in the West Bank have been left to fend for themselves, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on Monday to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Smotrich, who criticized the government’s West Bank policy during Operation Swords of Iron, called on the cabinet to “shake up the security in the West Bank, including creating dead zones surrounding Jewish towns and preventing the entrance of Palestinians.”
“It is absurd that the policy has not changed,” Smotrich lamented. “This is insanity that I will not abide by.”
Despite Smotrich’s comments, and according to Israeli NGO Yesh Din, settlers have attacked Palestinians in more than 100 incidents in at least 62 towns and villages in the West Bank between October 7, the day of Hamas’s mass infiltration and massacre, and October 22.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 122 Palestinians have died in the West Bank since October 7. These estimates come from the Palestinians, and include clashes with Israeli security forces as well as with settlers.
Israel arrests 38, including five Hamas terrorists, in West Bank raid
On Monday, security forces arrested 38 Palestinian terror suspects, including five who the IDF said were Hamas-affiliated.
Additionally, three printing houses that were used to distribute Hamas propaganda inciting violence against Jews were destroyed.
Forces also shot at Palestinian rioters and stone-throwers in the villages of Halhoul and Beit Annan, near Mount Ebal.