IDF Central Commander Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth on Tuesday slammed dozens of Jewish extremists for having attacked the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq in the Efraim region of the West Bank on Monday night.
“Any violent public disturbance harms security, and the IDF will not allow it,” he said.
Bluth said that from an initial probe, dozens of extremist Jewish Israelis with facemasks attacked Al-Funduq by perpetrating arson against Palestinian property in the village.
The army said that upon receiving reports of the attacks, the security forces and the police came to stop the Jewish attackers.
Despite the IDF continuing to argue that it cannot anticipate such attacks until they have started, a number of Jewish extremists have been openly calling at protests or on social media in recent weeks to attack Palestinian villages.
Also, the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) have a variety of technologies allowing the tracking and anticipation of attacks, something they regularly use to catch Palestinian terrorists before they accomplish their plots.
The military said the Jewish attackers started to also attack the security forces.
Without referencing that somewhere in the malaise of incidents, a police officer, and possibly a soldier, opened fire and wounded two of the Jewish attackers (after they had sprayed the police officer with pepper spray), the IDF said that a joint investigation had been opened by the Police Investigations Department (which handles probing police) as well as the Military Police (which probes soldiers.)
An IDF spokesperson refused to discuss the status of the soldier, who clearly was being interviewed, but who might avoid being interrogated under caution like the police officer.
Still, it was not certain that the police officer would be indicted or penalized long-term, given that he was struck with pepper spray and may claim self-defense.
In the meantime, he was suspended for at least eight days.
In 2024, 17 Israeli security forces were attacked by Jewish extremists.
It was unclear how many of the extremist Jewish attackers had been arrested, and the police did not respond to requests to clarify the issue.
The incident follows a major spike in Jewish attacks on Palestinian villages, including large numbers of Jews all at once, especially with repeat attacks on the Palestinian villages of Turmus Aiya, Al-Funduq, Immatin, Hajja, Kisan, Yatma, and others.
That spike follows a Palestinian terror attack near Kedumim in which three Jews were killed and eight wounded.
Katz's shocking decision
On January 13, a UN report said 18 Palestinians had been wounded in Jewish extremist attacks already in the first week of January – though such reports do not necessarily differentiate between fighters and civilians.
All of this also took place following Defense Minister Israel Katz stunning the Shin Bet and the IDF by freeing all Jewish security detainees from administrative detention without having considered the security forces’ opinion on how this would impact overall security in the West Bank.
It was also unclear if Katz did any specific review of any of the cases for potential danger of those Jewish Israeli detainees.
Katz had previously blocked any new administrative detention requests by the security forces against Jewish Israelis, but had not freed any of those already in detention.
Also, the police, during the term of outgoing national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have been accused by the Shin Bet and some in the IDF of turning a blind eye to many cases against Jewish extremists.
It remains to be seen whether this will change now that Ben-Gvir quit the government or whether the top police officials he installed will maintain his policies on ideological grounds or out of concern that he may return to the government on March 1, at the end of the initial 42-day Israel-Hamas ceasefire phase.
Currently, Israel is holding well over 3,000 Palestinians in administrative detention, along with several thousand more, breaking the 10,000 level, in other capacities, such as unlawful combatants and temporary detention pending evaluation, and around 2,500 of whom have been indicted for various crimes.