Netanyahu convenes Cabinet meeting as violence by Israeli settlers surge in West Bank

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with top security officials during a Cabinet meeting to discuss the rise of violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. The meeting followed incidents of settlers hurling rocks at Palestinian cars passing by the village of Huwara.

Huwara Mayor Jihad Ouda said settlers also set a huge fire at a nearby scrapyard. Flames lit up the evening sky and sent massive columns of smoke into the air, images and video on social media showed. The military said it had reports that Israelis set the fire and that police were investigating.

In this month alone, the United Nations has documented 29 cases of attacks by settlers in the West Bank. The attacks caused 11 injuries and damage to 10 homes, two mosques and nearly two dozen vehicles, as well as damage to crops, livestock, and roughly 1,000 trees and saplings.

What was discussed in the meeting?

At the meeting, Netanyahu and officials from the military, the country’s Shin Bet domestic security service and the police discussed the recent spike in violence and proposals on curbing it, according to an Israeli official who spoke to the Associated Press. The official said proposals floated at the meeting included getting violent settlers to attend educational programs.

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The West Bank and East Jerusalem are home to 700,000 Jews with 160 settlements. Israel took over the area during the 1967 Middle East War. About 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside the Israeli settlers.

Netanyahu has called the perpetrators “a handful of extremists” and urged law enforcement to pursue them for “the attempt to take the law into their own hands.”

Violence by settlers surge

U.N. humanitarian office figures show 2,920 Israeli settler attacks took place between January and October this year.

Israel’s government is dominated by far-right proponents of the settler movement, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who formulates settlement policy, and Cabinet minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the nation’s police force.

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The security cabinet meeting came shortly after Israeli settlers celebrated the creation of a new, unauthorised settlement near Bethlehem.

With inputs from agencies