IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said that terror incidents in the West Bank were among the lowest seen in the past year, while warning that nationalist crime by a “threatening minority from within” was harming Israel’s security during the war, the military stated on Wednesday.
Zamir said that the number of terror incidents in the West Bank over the past year was “among the lowest we have known,” crediting “the offensive and professional activity being carried out here,” according to the IDF.
Zamir visited Central Command on Tuesday alongside several members of IDF leadership. During the visit, he met forces in the Binyamin and Samaria regional brigades, held a situational assessment, and spoke with divisional and brigade commanders about operational challenges in the sector and recent events, the military noted.
While Zamir credited the "offensive and professional activity" of the Central Command, he noted that commanders' first duty is to continue maintaining a high level of alertness, strong protection of the communities, and a determined and uncompromising war on terror, including settler violence in the West Bank.
He called on state authorities “to come out against this phenomenon and cut it off before it is too late.”
“Anyone who thinks these actions help security is mistaken. They are morally and ethically wrong, and they create extraordinary strategic damage to the IDF’s efforts," he said.
“It cannot be that during a multi-front war, the IDF is forced to contend with a threatening minority from within,” he said. “These are rioters who do not represent the settlement movement. On the contrary, they endanger the settlement enterprise, security stability, and our values as a people and as a state.”
“The last thing I would want is for you to be burdened beyond the existing difficulty of carrying out the ongoing mission.”
He also said there was “no place in public discourse for statements or incitement against commanders who work every day to eradicate terror and safeguard Israel’s security."
“The exceptional work of Central Command, led by the regional commander, the commander of the Judea and Samaria Division, and the regional brigade commanders, deserves the highest appreciation," Zamir said.
“We need to provide security and maintain high availability, reaching every point in the field within short timeframes, in order to thwart terror in the area,” he said.
‘Historic and unprecedented’ regional war
According to the IDF statement, Zamir said that “the State of Israel and the IDF are in the midst of a historic and unprecedented multi-front campaign against the Iranian terror regime and its proxies throughout the region.”
“At this moment,” he said, “the IDF is striking in Lebanon and in Tehran, while defending on the front lines across all borders.”
He also praised the IDF's assasinations of several senior Iranian figures, including Esmaeil Khatib, Ali Larijani, and Aziz Nasirzadeh.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett also strongly condemned the West Bank settler violence in a Wednesday statement.
“We did not establish a Jewish state so that violent gangs would operate within it.
"More than half a million Israelis live in Judea and Samaria, good, decent people, the backbone of the country. The vast majority reject violence and crime," he added.
"Precisely as someone who believes in our right to the land and in the communities there, we must denounce the rioters and eradicate all violence from within our own ranks."
He also noted that the violence reflected "another failure of governance by the government."
"Let the IDF and the police do their job," Bennett added.