Jerusalem:

The Israeli military said on Wednesday it had “failed” in its response to a settler attack in the occupied West Bank earlier this month that Palestinian officials said killed one man.

The August 15 raid on the northern West Bank village of Jit came amid soaring violence in the Palestinian territory during the Gaza war and growing international concern over an uptick in attacks by Jewish settlers.

Major General Avi Bluth, head of the military’s Central Command which operates in the West Bank, was quoted in a statement as saying the attack was “a very serious terror incident in which Israelis set out to deliberately harm the residents of the town of Jit, and we failed by not succeeding to arrive earlier to protect them”.

Jit residents have said about 100 settlers armed with knives and firearms set fire to cars and homes in the village. 

The military, releasing on Wednesday a summary of its investigation, said the group wore masks, threw rocks and Molotov cocktails and set three vehicles and two buildings on fire.

The Palestinian health ministry said a 23-year-old Palestinian man, Rashid Sada, was shot dead in the attack.

Last week, Israeli police and the Shin Bet internal security service said they had arrested four suspects for “terrorist” acts in connection with the incident.

The military’s investigation found that the first troops at the scene “did not manage to fully gauge the situation” and “needed to act more decisively”, the statement said.

“Several members of the rapid response team from a nearby (settlement) community, who were not in active reserve duty, arrived at the scene without authorisation, dressed in uniform, and acted contrary to the authority defined for the members of the rapid response team,” it added without elaborating.

Two members of the team “were dismissed, and their weapons were confiscated”, it said.

The statement said the shooting that killed Sada and wounded another Palestinian occurred before more Israeli forces managed to disperse the assailants.

“The troops acted assertively, risking their lives, containing the rioters, and pushing them out of the town using crowd dispersal means and firing into the air,” the statement said.

“Half an hour after the incident began, all Israelis were removed from the town.”

Bluth was quoted as saying the case “will not be closed until we bring the perpetrators to justice”.

Rising violence

Israeli President Isaac Herzog “firmly” condemned the attack on Jit when it occurred.

Since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza, violence has flared in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and separated geographically from Gaza by Israeli territory.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank, where some 490,000 people live, are illegal under international law. The United Nations considers them an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace.

On Wednesday Washington announced new sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank over violence against Palestinians, urging Israel to bring greater accountability.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday that he viewed the sanctions “with utmost severity” and that they were the subject of “pointed discussion” with the US.

Since October 7, at least 660 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers, according to an AFP count based on Palestinian official figures.

During the same period, at least 19 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks, according to Israeli official figures.

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Jerusalem:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he views “with utmost severity” new sanctions imposed by Washington on Israeli setters in the West Bank over violence against Palestinians.

“Israel views with utmost severity the imposition of sanctions on citizens of Israel. The issue is in a pointed discussion with the US,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

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Jerusalem:

Israel is to build the first West Bank settlement since 2017, announced the Israeli Civil Administration, the country’s governing body that operates in the West Bank, local media reported.

Nahal Heletz, the new settlement, will cover approximately 148 acres (about 600,000 square metres) southwest of Jerusalem, near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, reports Xinhua news agency, quoting the Times of Israel.

The construction is likely years away since obtaining the zoning plans and construction permits would take time, the report further read.

Peace Now, an organisation opposing the settlements, warned that Nahal Heletz “will be an enclave in a Palestinian zone and will bring about friction and security challenges.”

It said Nahal Heletz is designed to disrupt Palestinian territorial continuity and argued that it contributes to Israel’s “de facto annexation” of the West Bank.

It also pointed out that the settlement will be built on land that belongs to Battir, a Palestinian village known for its ancient agricultural terraces recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

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Jerusalem:

The Israeli military has approved permission for Israelis to return to three former West Bank settlements they had been banned from entering since an evacuation ordered in 2005, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

The three settlements, Sa-nur, Ganim and Kadim, are located near the Palestinian cities of Jenin and Nablus, both of which are strongholds of armed groups in the northern West Bank.

A fourth settlement, Homesh, was cleared for entry last year after parliament passed an amendment to the so-called “disengagement law” of 2005. Permission from the military, which has overall control of the West Bank, was required for any return to the other three former settlements.

The military announced the move on the day three European states said they would formally recognise the State of Palestine, and as Israel’s military offensive against the Palestinian group Hamas continued in the Gaza Strip.

It took the decision despite international pressure on Israel to curb settlement expansion in the West Bank, which Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state alongside Gaza.

“The Jewish hold on Judea and Samaria guarantees security, the application of the law to cancel disengagement will lead to the development of settlement and provide security to residents of the area,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement, using the Biblical names for the West Bank that are often used in Israel.

There was no immediate comment from the Palestinian Authority.

Last year’s amendment to the disengagement law was seen as opening the way to re-establishing former West Bank settlements evacuated in 2005 under a plan overseen by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Under the plan, which was opposed by the settler movement at the time, all 21 Israeli settlements in Gaza were ordered to be evacuated. Most settlements in the West Bank were unaffected apart from the four that will now be accessible again.

More than 500,000 Jewish settlers are now estimated to be living in the West Bank, part of territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, with a further 200,000 living in East Jerusalem.

For Palestinians and most of the international community, the settlements are considered illegal. Israel disputes this, citing the Jewish people’s historical, biblical and political links to the area as well as security considerations.

Despite international opposition, settlements have continued to expand strongly under successive Israeli governments.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)