Israeli settlers set fire to a scrap yard in the town of Huwara on Thursday, continuing an escalation in attacks on Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank that has reached record levels since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.
For most of that time, Israeli authorities and security forces have said and done little to stop these attacks. Some far-right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government have been supportive of the settlers' actions, particularly Minister of Finance Bezalal Smotrich and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The situation appears to be changing now amid mounting pressure internally and externally to bring the long-standing policy to a halt.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an emergency meeting with members of his cabinet to discuss the ongoing attacks. No details of the discussions were released, but an Israeli official told the Associated Press that one of the proposals floated at the meeting included getting violators to attend "educational programmes".
Mr Netanyahu had vowed on Sunday to crack down on the perpetrators of the attacks, saying they do not represent the majority of settlers and warning that they would face "very forceful action".
Mr Netanyahu's comments came after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the attacks risked creating more instability in the West Bank that could undermine Washington's peace plan for Gaza.
Israel's security forces have also begun speaking out against the violence. Israeli army chief of staff Gen Eyal Zamir last week "strongly condemned" the attacks.
Last week, Israeli media published a leaked letter to troops from Col Ariel Gonen, the commander of an Israeli brigade in the West Bank, telling them not to "stand aside" during attacks.
"Internal pressure has come from the military and general security services too," said Kobi Michael, senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli think tank.
"At the end of the day, the police is still loyal to the state and not to Ben-Gvir, and the IDF is obliged to its responsibilities as the sovereign power of these territories," he said.
The attackers have often been enabled by the lack of action from the Israeli state, whether security forces who are present but fail to intervene during violence against Palestinians, or the failure to punish those responsible.
A look at the past two decades of Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli human rights groups Yesh Din showed that more than 94 per cent of police investigations were closed without indictments and only three per cent ended in a partial or full conviction.
"This is a longstanding and consistent failure, indicative of a deliberate Israeli policy that normalises ideologically motivated violence against Palestinians, supports it and benefits from its outcomes," the group said in a report released in January.
Last year, Defence Minister Israel Katz further weakened repercussions against settlers by exempting them from administrative detention, which allows the state to hold suspects without trial.
As of June, at least 3,500 Palestinians remain in administrative detention in Israeli prisons without charge, according to the Israeli Prison Service.
Response to pressure
Speaking to The National, Israeli political analyst Ori Goldberg said that Mr Netanyahu's display of concern is nothing more than a "sham" and a response to pressure from within Israel and externally.
Last month, 23 US lawmakers sent a letter to the Trump administration, pressing for the release of Mohammad Ibrahim, a 16 year-old Palestinian-American who has been detained since February for allegedly throwing stones in the West Bank. His detention was extended earlier this month, although he has yet to be charged.
The legislators cited concerns that Mohammad's family had not been able to contact him since his detention, and that he had lost weight and showed signs of torture and an overall deterioration of health.
Mr Netanyahu "is concerned because the Trump administration is concerned about an American citizen getting injured and dying. He is proposing 'workshops' meant to 'calm' settler terrorists. He is balancing this out for his religious voters by having the new head of Shin Bet, a settler himself, publicly support the death penalty for 'terrorists'. It is all a sham," Mr Goldberg said.
Member of Knesset Ofer Cassif, who opposes Mr Netanyahu's policies in Gaza and the West Bank, echoed the sentiment.
"For decades, Israeli governments have been responsible for the rise of settlers' terrorism in the occupied West Bank and for the overall de facto ethnic cleansing policy," he told The National.
"I have been pressuring the government to proscribe violent settler gangs as terrorist groups since May 2023, and Netanyahu's systematic refusal to do so ignites the flames of horrors and promotes bloodshed."
