Israel just condemned its own settlers for attacking a West Bank village
1 day ago · 30 September 2026Share
IDF soldiers and Israeli settlers in the West Bank. File photo. ISM Palestine · CC BY-SA 2.0
Over 100 Israeli settlers just attacked a Palestinian village. And Israel's own government just condemned them for it.
Here's what happened. Early this morning, settlers stormed Jalud, a village in the northern occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military was there trying to walk one family home. The Tubasi family. Settlers had driven them out of Jalud about two months ago. Israel's High Court had ordered, earlier this month, that they be allowed back in, safely.
It didn't go that way.
Settlers blocked the roads. Set tyres on fire. Threw rocks at the security forces sent to protect the family. Then they set fire to Palestinian buildings and cars. Mahmoud Tubasi's two homes in the village burned down.
Mahmoud Tubasi told AFP his family drove in with an army vehicle in front and another behind. Settlers attacked, and soldiers used pepper spray to push the crowd back.
Three Israeli Border Police officers were hurt. A security vehicle was damaged.
So who got arrested? Depends who you ask. AFP says one person was arrested and two minors were questioned. The Times of Israel says three suspects were arrested by the afternoon. A Reuters report carried by US News says two settlers were arrested. Nobody has cleared that up yet.
Now here's the twist. This is the part that actually makes it news.
Israel's government came out and condemned the settlers. In public. By name. From the top.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister, blamed a small number of rioters. He said their actions cause great harm to that community and get in the way of the army's mission.
Isaac Herzog, Israel's President, went further. He says quote "a moral stain, an assault on the rule of law".
Gideon Sa'ar, Israel's Foreign Minister, called it grave and abhorrent. He said anyone who attacks Border Police or soldiers is a criminal who has to face the full force of the law.
Israel Katz, the Defence Minister, condemned it too. But he also called it the work of a handful of rioters getting in the way of the fight against Palestinian attacks.
So why does this matter? Because this almost never happens.
Settler attacks on Palestinians are routine. The United Nations recorded an average of six a day across the West Bank in the first half of this year alone. And they are almost never condemned by name from the top of Israel's government.
The rest of this story is for members.
Contains modified ISS Expedition 75 imagery showing the West Bank including Ramallah and surrounding villages and settlements. Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domain
This time the people hurt were Israeli soldiers. And Israel's leadership spoke fast, and spoke plainly.
It didn't stop with the government either.
Gadi Eisenkot is a retired Israeli military chief of staff. He now leads the Yashar party and is Netanyahu's main challenger in next month's election. He called the violence disgusting, and said it's the direct result of a dangerous government policy.
And Yisrael Ganz condemned it too. He heads the main umbrella group for Jewish settlements in the West Bank. He's calling for a police crackdown. That's a rare break from inside the settler movement itself.
But there's a second version of this story.
Al Jazeera, citing local and Anadolu sources, reported that Israeli forces actually protected the settlers, and forced the Tubasi family to evacuate again at gunpoint. That's the opposite of what AFP and Israeli officials say happened. Neither account has been independently verified beyond its own sourcing.
And it wasn't the only attack that morning.
Dozens of settlers from nearby hilltop outposts raided al-Mughayyir, a village northeast of Ramallah, and burned at least five cars. An AFP journalist who was there saw it happen.
In Beitunia, near Ramallah, dozens of settlers held a Sukkot prayer using loudspeakers. The town's mayor, Ribhi Dawla, called it a dangerous precedent tied to settlement ambitions there.
The United States is watching too. A State Department spokesperson told CNN that Washington is in regular dialogue with partners about improving stability and security in the West Bank, and condemns criminal violence by any party there.
Here's the bigger picture. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. About 500,000 Israeli settlers now live there among three million Palestinians, and settlement building keeps growing.
Since the Gaza war began in October 2023, Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,111 Palestinians in the West Bank. That's an AFP count, based on Palestinian health ministry figures. Israeli figures show 49 Israelis killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations in the same period.
And the timing matters. Netanyahu played down international criticism of settler violence in a speech to the United Nations only a week ago. Britain, the Netherlands and other countries have recently sanctioned goods made in Israeli settlements, which are considered illegal under international law. Israel has responded with anger and diplomatic countermeasures.
So what don't we know? Who the settlers actually were. What group, if any, they belong to. What happens to the people detained. And which account of the army's role is true — protecting the family, or protecting the settlers.
What we do know is this. The Tubasi family's return to their own home has now failed twice.
And Israel's own prime minister and president have just stood up in public and called the people who stopped it criminals.
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