Anger at Israeli minister who backed settlers over troops

Violent week in occupied West Bank saw Israeli soldiers take rare action against rioting settlers

Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops during a settler attack in the West Bank. AP

A clash between Israeli settlers and soldiers has divided opinion in the far-right government, with one minister criticised for taking the settlers' side.

The clash in the West Bank on Friday led to a 14-year-old Israeli being shot and taken to hospital in the village of Kafr Malik, near the Palestinian capital, Ramallah. The area has seen an increased rate of settler attacks against Palestinian communities, with attacks on people, property and livestock.

Israel’s military, which was in the area following Israeli settler attacks, denied that any live ammunition was “conducted towards Israeli civilians”. The clash came after days of particularly brutal settler violence against Palestinians, which has been spiralling throughout the Gaza war. Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire in Kafr Malik on Wednesday.

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Opposition leader Yair Lapid said “our lives are in the hands of criminals” after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich criticised the Israeli soldiers. Mr Smotrich said after the attack that the Israeli military’s “live fire against Jews is a forbidden and dangerous crossing of a red line which requires an in-depth investigation”.

Mourners hold a funeral for three Palestinians killed when settlers stormed a West Bank village. AP

“Jewish terrorists beat IDF soldiers, punched a battalion commander defending them and Smotrich says that the ones who ‘crossed the line’ are not the extremist criminals but actually the IDF soldiers there to protect them,” Mr Lapid wrote on X.

Merav Ben Ari, a politician from Mr Lapid’s party, responded to Mr Smotrich: “I don’t get it, so live fire against Druze, Arabs, Christians, Circassians, that’s cool? Listen, you miserable racist, it’s an embarrassment that you are a minister in the state of Israel.”

Left-wing Israeli politician Ofer Cassif said: “Live fire against Jews, not against human beings. That's what troubles this vile fascist, a follower of the abominable race theory of the [far-right] ultra-Orthodox ‘Rabbi’ Shapira and other evil-doers. These will soon be thrown into the trash bin of history. Very soon.”

The incidents of the past few days have underlined for some Israelis that the growing lawlessness in the occupied West Bank, much of which is being driven by supporters of the country’s far-right coalition, is becoming hard to ignore. On Saturday, a day after the teenager was put in hospital, a police station was vandalised by settlers in the settlement of Beit El.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israeli soldiers 'crossed a red line' by clashing with settlers. Reuters

In the aftermath of the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for an investigation “to bring to justice anyone who violated the law and acted against our soldiers”. He added that the attackers “are a small minority who do not represent the absolute majority of settlers”. Israel’s settlement project, viewed as illegal by the vast majority of the international community, has expanded significantly during the tenure of Mr Netanyahu’s coalition.

There were reports of settler land seizures and attacks in Masafer Yatta on Sunday, the recent subject of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Four people were injured after being assaulted by settlers.

There were also reports that a group of settlers destroyed around 180 trees owned by a Palestinian farmer east of the occupied West Bank city of Qalqilya, and the seizure of cattle in the northern Jordan Valley.