Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the evacuation of 14 settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank during a security deliberation, while also raising the need to strengthen the “Jewish Division” within the Shin Bet security service.
During the consultation, security officials stated that these illegal outposts have recently become forward bases used by settlers to launch attacks on Palestinian villages.
They explained that the danger now extends beyond Palestinians, evolving into “harm against state symbols and incitement toward its institutions”, with direct assaults recorded against Israeli soldiers and police officers — a sign of how these settler groups are increasingly threatening Israel’s own internal order and rule of law.
Security officials presented reports showing that about one thousand young settlers reside in these outposts, including three hundred placed in the “violence circle” category and involved in assaults on Palestinians or the Israeli army.
Accordingly, Israel’s security establishment is preparing to implement the instructions, addressing the situation of roughly seventy settlers who committed attacks against the army and security forces and who used these outposts as bases for operations and violence.
An Internal Move
This step precedes a visit by US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz to Israel and Jordan. Israeli media framed the decision as a concession to American pressure. However, its core purpose concerns internal security and addressing settler attacks on Israeli soldiers and security personnel.
Israeli political and security sources indicated that Netanyahu’s actual objective, according to Channel 12 military correspondent Nir Dvori, is “a legal internal response to pursue settlers attacking Israeli soldiers, not to protect Palestinians”.
Dvori added that a source close to Netanyahu strongly denied any intention to dismantle or evacuate settlement outposts, describing circulating reports as “false and misleading”.
According to the source, Netanyahu convened senior security officials and community figures to discuss dealing with a small set of lawbreaking settlers who, he said, “do not belong to the settlement movement nor represent it”, stressing that the move targets regulating the behaviour of “these youths only” and does not undermine the settlement enterprise.
Netanyahu and the Right Wing
This interpretation is reinforced by a document published by Yedioth Ahronoth, noting that Netanyahu supports the spread of settlement outposts in Area C. The evacuation measure, it said, is merely part of addressing internal assaults, with expulsion orders issued against roughly thirty settlers accused of involvement in “Jewish terrorism”.
Knesset correspondent Amir Ettinger explained that the document confirms Netanyahu’s endorsement of establishing and expanding random settlement outposts in the West Bank, despite their illegality under Israeli law itself.
Ettinger added that the document, prepared by the National Security Council, states Netanyahu views “approved and supervised settlement farms” as the necessary tool to secure Area C and counter Palestinian activity there.
The document, formally addressing measures to confront the violence of “Hilltop Youth” — a radical settler group — ultimately “encourages the expansion of settlement outposts”, according to the journalist. He pointed out that sources who participated in deliberations in early November confirmed that Netanyahu directed officials to accelerate legalisation procedures for these outposts.
While the document discusses “educational tools” to remove these youths from the violence circle, it acknowledges — Ettinger said — that “their numbers are increasing due to the absence of any authority responsible for them”, reflecting a clear lack of Israeli intent to hold violent settlers accountable and instead sustaining an environment that encourages continued assaults.
Although random outposts are illegal in terms of construction, the document claims that “most grazing lands linked to these farms are legal” and that the Civil Administration handed them over to settlers.
According to Ettinger, the Israeli government is working to regularise these outposts under a “single farm” model to gain control over Area C. Data indicates the existence of around one hundred such agricultural outposts, more than fifteen of which were built after the Gaza war began, alongside the creation of a “Farm Union” and a lobbying network pushing for state budgets.
Since the formation of the current Netanyahu government, ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Orit Strook have led efforts to expand support for these settlement farms, with tens of millions of shekels allocated over the past three years through coalition funding.
Leniency in Investigations
According to figures acknowledged by the Israeli army, settler gangs committed 704 nationalist background attacks against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank from the start of 2025 to now — a tally surpassing the 675 attacks recorded in all of 2024.
Meanwhile, data from the Palestinian Authority’s Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission showed a significant rise in violence last November, with about 2144 assaults carried out by Israeli forces and settlers across various governorates.
Of these, Israeli soldiers perpetrated 1523 direct attacks on Palestinians and their property, while settlers carried out 621 attacks — illustrating the widening scope of settler violence and the army’s direct targeting of Palestinians.
Israeli police statistics reveal a sharp gap between the rising settler attacks on Palestinians and the declining number of investigations opened into these crimes.
Despite human rights reports confirming increased violence, official figures demonstrate a lenient approach under National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Investigation files dropped from 235 cases in 2022 to 150 in 2023, then to around 60 cases in 2024 — a 73 percent decrease in two years.
These cases include assault, property damage, shootings, and threats — all of which saw significant declines in opened investigations, especially shootings, which fell from thirteen cases last year to just four this year.
Despite this decrease, prosecution rates remain almost nonexistent: in 2023, indictments were issued in only 10 percent of cases, while most cases in 2024 were closed due to “lack of evidence” or “absence of public interest”, further entrenching systemic impunity for Israeli settlers.
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