The Settler Militia: How the IDF Arming Settlers Fuels Violence Against West Bank Palestinians

Under the cover of the Gaza war, violence in the West Bank has surged. Since the October 7 attack, the IDF has distributed thousands of weapons to settlers, further escalating an already volatile situation between them and the Palestinian population. While the initiative was intended to bolster security in the settlements, it has had an alarming side effect: armed Jewish extremists, some in partial uniforms, are terrorizing the Palestinian population. Police claim that nationalist crime is on the decline, but their statistics exclude incidents involving soldiers—and the IDF refuses to release any data. A Shomrim investigation

Under the cover of the Gaza war, violence in the West Bank has surged. Since the October 7 attack, the IDF has distributed thousands of weapons to settlers, further escalating an already volatile situation between them and the Palestinian population. While the initiative was intended to bolster security in the settlements, it has had an alarming side effect: armed Jewish extremists, some in partial uniforms, are terrorizing the Palestinian population. Police claim that nationalist crime is on the decline, but their statistics exclude incidents involving soldiers—and the IDF refuses to release any data. A Shomrim investigation

Under the cover of the Gaza war, violence in the West Bank has surged. Since the October 7 attack, the IDF has distributed thousands of weapons to settlers, further escalating an already volatile situation between them and the Palestinian population. While the initiative was intended to bolster security in the settlements, it has had an alarming side effect: armed Jewish extremists, some in partial uniforms, are terrorizing the Palestinian population. Police claim that nationalist crime is on the decline, but their statistics exclude incidents involving soldiers—and the IDF refuses to release any data. A Shomrim investigation

Illustration: The subject is not related to the content of the article. Photo: Reuters

Daniel Dolev and Fadi Amun

in collaboration with

December 19, 2024

Summary

Israeli settler Matanya Kitzis showed up one day at the home of a Palestinian family in the South Hebron Hills area of the West Bank. He did not knock at the door or ask permission to enter. He simply sat on the mattresses on the porch of a home that did not belong to him and to which he was not invited. He was wearing army-issue pants and boots and a “civilian” tank top, and he was carrying an IDF weapon. A video published of the incident, which took place in June 2024, clearly shows Kitzis sitting nonchalantly, smoking a cigarette, engrossed in his cell phone. (Watch the video.)

As infuriating as this incident sounds, Kitzis’ alleged intrusion into a Palestinian family’s home is not an unusual occurrence for residents of the occupied West Bank. They have been experiencing this phenomenon for years and it is entirely possible that no one would have given a second thought to this act of dominion if it were not for the fact that it symbolizes a widespread phenomenon whereby any confrontation or response to provocation of any kind could end in shots being fired.

Since the Hamas attack on October 7, the IDF has recruited and armed thousands of West Bank settlers as part of rapid-response teams or as members of the regional defense units. They were mobilized to protect the settlements in which they resided. The logic behind the move is evident but, more than a year into this war, the inadvertent outcome is that the West Bank has been flooded with settlers armed with IDF weapons – and the situation has never been more chaotic.

Kitzis refused to respond to the incident or to explain how he was in possession of an army-issue firearm, merely saying that it was “none of your business.” He, however, is just a symptom of the phenomenon. The Democratic Bloc‎ has been collecting filmed evidence of clashes between settlers and West Bank Palestinians over the past several months, including dozens of incidents where settlers in civilian clothing or partial military attire (IDF-issued pants and a civilian shirt) are seen carrying rifles and engaging in confrontations with Palestinians.

“Over the past few months, we have seen people who are civilians, not soldiers, armed with rifles the whole time,” one resident of the Palestinian village of Umm al Kher in the South Hebron Hills tells Shomrim. He asked to remain anonymous. “It’s terrifying to see. You just don’t know how to deal with these people. They are settlers and we know some of them from civilian life. Now they are driving around in their civilian vehicles, but they have sirens on the roof, and they use rifles they were given by the IDF.”

The same resident was witness to another incident, which happened at the start of the war, when a settler armed with an IDF rifle was filmed shooting an unarmed Palestinian man, Zakaria al-Adra, at point-blank range in the village of A-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills. “That was just one of the incidents involving armed settlers since October 7,” he says. “He was not wearing an army uniform; he was in civilian clothes – but he had a long rifle. If they feel frightened, they can start shooting immediately. This game that we have seen the settlers playing since the war started is insane. They use guns and violence to force Palestinian villages and communities in the South Hebron Hills to leave their homes.” (Watch the video.)

‘They came into the tent and aimed their guns at us’

In July of this year, the U.S. administration imposed sanctions against Isaschar Manne, the founder of the Manne Farm outpost, as well as the outpost itself, accusing him of exacerbating tensions in the West Bank and trying to seize Palestinian-owned land. Manne, it seems, was not overly bothered by the sanctions. Around a month later, on August 27, he uploaded a video to social media site X in which he can be seen giving water to a herd of goats – from a Palestinian water tanker in the Bedouin village of Tuba in the South Hebron Hills. In the video, Manne is seen leaning up against the tanker, chatting on his cell phone – armed, of course, with an IDF-issued rifle. Manne did not respond to Shomrim’s request for comments. (Watch the video.)

In another incident that took place not far from there on July 7, two settlers were videoed attaching a pipe and an electric pump to a well belonging to the Palestinian Fatah Sadro community. In the video, which was uploaded to social media platform X, the two settlers can be seen trying to drive away a Palestinian man from the site. They have their faces covered, are wearing partial IDF uniforms and one of them is armed with a wooden baton and the other has an IDF-issued rifle. On October 31, an armed settler carrying a rifle and wearing a partial military uniform was documented allowing his sheep to graze from a Palestinian farmer’s olive harvest in the South Hebron Hills. (Watch the video).

This is by necessity only a partial picture, since only those incidents which are documented on video are brought to the public’s attention. During a tour of the area, two residents of Umm al Kher tell Shomrim about another violent incident involving settlers who have been mobilized into these rapid-response and regional defense units – which was not captured on video. “It happened in this very tent on October 27,” one of them says. “There were 17 of us young people here, sitting with the sheikh. We were talking among ourselves, and no one went anywhere close to the perimeter fence of the settlement, when a white Isuzu D-MAX with military license plates drove up.”

“They entered the tent and pointed their weapons at us,” says Tareq Hadlin, a local resident. “I spoke to them in my broken Hebrew and tried to understand what was happening. One of them told me to instruct the others to lie down on the floor with their faces towards the sides of the tent – and that anyone who moved would be shot in the head. I translated for my brothers and cousins, and they all started looking through all of our cell phones. They had masks on, not helmets. They had army uniforms and used nicknames for each other.”

“In the end, they forced one of my relatives to stand up and while they searched our cell phones they humiliated him. One soldier said that he [the relative] was pleased with what Hamas did because he loves killing babies and raping women.

Tareq Hadlin, a resident of Umm al Kher in the South Hebron Hills. Photo: Fadi Amun

Despite the masks Hadlin and another person who was present claim that they recognized among the members of the force that entered the tent a resident of an adjacent Jewish outpost who had been mobilized by the IDF. Shomrim has chosen not to publish this person’s name. “No one was allowed to move,” Hadlin adds. “In the end, they forced one of my relatives to stand up and while they searched our cell phones they humiliated him. One soldier said that he [the relative] was pleased with what Hamas did because he loves killing babies and raping women. He forced us to make a video in Hebrew in which we cursed Hamas and condemned what it did. At gunpoint. After that, they went one by one and insisted that we all agreed. When they finished, one of them looked at his watch and told my relative that they would be back at 7 o’clock the next morning and that if he didn’t see an Israeli flag flying from the building, they would kill us. We had to decide whether we were with them or against them.”

Another resident of Umm al Kher who was present at the time confirms these details, adding that, the day after the incident, fearing that the soldier in question would make good on his threat to return to their tent, they called the police in Hebron to file a complaint. The resident says that the officer who took their complaint said that there is little the police can do when it comes to an IDF soldier in uniform. The police confirmed that a complaint was submitted, adding that it was “relayed, as per protocol, to the Military Police, given the involvement of IDF soldiers in the incident.”

“What we’re witnessing now in the West Bank surpasses anything we’ve seen before,” says Sarit Michaeli, International Advocacy Officer for B’Tselem. “The sheer scale of violence has led to a shift in its nature. The massive escalation by settlers, coupled with the integration of violent individuals into rapid-response teams and regional defense units, has created an unprecedentedly extreme reality on the ground. While these phenomena aren’t entirely new, the situation has reached extraordinary levels of intensity since October 7.”

Michaeli also mentions the shooting of Zakaria al-Adra not long after the outbreak of the war. She also brings up another incident, which occurred at around the same time, in which five Palestinians from the West Bank village of Qusra, close to Nablus, were killed by settler fire within the space of two days. “People are aware of this,” she says. “Once, you would be beaten and threatened. Now, they threaten you with a firearm and you know that, as a Palestinian, if they shoot and kill you – no one will pay the price for it. They will simply say that they felt in danger and that’s it. The power that the settlers are able to wield under these circumstances is, to put it simply, more than absolute.”

The IDF refuses to reveal the numbers

Despite the increasingly explosive situation on the ground, Israeli enforcement bodies are trying to move the blame onto the next in line. As reported in Yedioth Ahronoth earlier this year, the Shin Bet and the IDF Central Command have been accusing the Israeli Police for many months of refusing to investigate allegations of Jewish terror and settler violence, so as not to anger Itamar Ben-Gvir, who, as Minister of National Security, oversees the police. In November of this year, Ilana Dayan published on Keshet a report compiled by the then-head of the Central Command, Yehuda Fox, which suggests a similar pattern. These allegations appear to have the support of senior Shin Bet officials, including the organization’s director, Ronen Bar.

Even though the military supports these police figures, there is every reason to question whether they are a true and accurate reflection of the reality on the ground. The main reason is that calling up so many settlers to reserve duty as members of rapid-response and regional defense units turns them from civilians to soldiers.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Photo: Reuters

The allegations that the police, and specifically its Judea and Samaria Division, is deliberately refraining from enforcing the law when it comes to Jewish terror are also at the heart of the incident which recently saw the arrest of Avishai Mualem, a senior police official in the West Bank. Speaking in the Knesset in March, Mualem claimed that “there has been an increase in the number of files and complaints by Palestinians and anarchists, and half of them turned out to be false.”

Shomrim asked the police for the figures on which Mualem based his comments – both in the form of a request from the spokesperson and a freedom-of-information request. Thus far, the police have not shared the information.

However, Shomrim has obtained, through the Movement for Freedom of Information in Israel, official police data regarding nationalist crime in the West Bank during the first six months of the war. These figures show that, rather than an increase, there was actually a drop in Jewish acts of violence and nationalism compared to the same periods in 2022 and 2023. In January 2024, for example, police recorded 28 cases of Jewish nationalist crimes in the West Bank, including three that were defined as “terror attacks” (beatings, grievous bodily harm, attacking places of worship, or torching vehicles). In January 2023, there were 90 cases, five of which were “terror attacks.” 

Even though the military supports these police figures, there is every reason to question whether they are a true and accurate reflection of the reality on the ground. The main reason is that calling up so many settlers to reserve duty as members of rapid-response and regional defense units turns them from civilians to soldiers. This means that any incident in which they are involved is not included in the police’s list of nationalist crimes, since, if an IDF soldier participates in a violent incident, as far as the police are concerned it’s a disciplinary matter for the army to handle.

How many such incidents have there been since the start of the war? The IDF refuses to divulge that information, and the Tel Aviv District Court is currently hearing a petition filed by Shomrim and the Movement for Freedom of Information in Israel, seeking to force the military to do so.

Until such time, it is worth pointing out that focusing on the police minimizes the police’s role in the chaotic situation that exists in the West Bank – whether it be in terms of violent acts perpetrated by soldiers or standing by and not intervening in settler violence. On very rare occasions, the IDF even admits as much. This is what happened on the evening of August 15, when around 100 settlers raided the village of Jit, near Nablus. They set fire to cars and houses and threw rocks and firebombs. Rasheed Seda, a 22-year-old Palestinian, was shot and killed and another person was wounded. According to a military investigation, on the day of the incident, the Shin Bet warned the IDF about “an organized group of Israeli civilians in vehicles planning to carry out nationalist crime in the Yitzhar area.” Despite the warning, however, the IDF did not deploy enough forces and the soldiers who were at the scene were unable to prevent the settlers from running riot.

According to the head of the Central Command, Major General Avi Bluth, “This is 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.”

Burned vehicles in the Palestinian village of Jit, on October 16, 2024. Photo: Reuters

The report on the incident goes on to state that “IDF troops rescued and assisted Palestinian families, including women and children, to escape from burning buildings and provided them with first aid.” However, it took more than 30 minutes for reinforcements to arrive and to drive the Jewish rioters away. According to the head of the Central Command, Major General Avi Bluth, “This is 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.”

As a result of the incident, two members of the rapid-response team from a nearby settlement were stripped of their duties and their weapons were confiscated. This is because the investigation found that “they arrived at the scene without authorization, dressed in uniform, and acted contrary to the authority defined for the members of the rapid-response team.”

The incident in Jit attracted a lot of public and media attention, which was the reason for Fox’s unusually harsh comments, but it is far from being the only such incident. In February, following the shooting attack in which Hillel and Yagel Yaniv, two brothers from the Har Bracha settlement were killed, hundreds of settlers raided the village of Hawara and torched homes and vehicles. In the same incident, Sameh Aqtash was shot to death. Almost a year later, on December 3, following the evacuation of an Israeli outpost near Nablus, settlers again rioted in the nearby Palestinian villages of Bayt Furik and Hawara, burned cars and houses and wounded two Palestinians and two Border Police officers with stones.

In late October, a short video was uploaded to social media, showing a confrontation between a Palestinian man who wanted to harvest olives from his land east of Jenin and a handful of Jewish settlers. In the video, which was published on the X account of the Looking the Occupation in the Eye NGO, three masked people, two of them armed with a baton and a stick and the other – shirtless – with an IDF-issued rifle slung over his back. (Watch the video).

“To begin with, three or four of them would turn up,” says Khaled, who was present during the incident and who agreed to be interviewed by Shomrim on condition that we do not publish his real name. “They saw a large group of us harvesting olives and left. A quarter of an hour later, they came back, but now there were 10 of them and they were accompanied by soldiers. The soldiers were carrying their weapons, but the settlers also had rifles. They beat us – me, my wife, and my children. The army was there but the soldiers just stood there watching and didn’t do anything. I called the Civil Administration, but they didn’t arrive in time.”

Khaled showed us medical documents from that day and photographs of the bruises he sustained. He says that there have been several similar incidents, in which he and his relatives were attacked by settlers armed with IDF weapons while they tried to work their land. “Even before this,” he says, “they used to attack us, but not with the same level of aggressiveness. Since October 7, they have been armed with rifles when they come to attack us.”

The Israel Police submitted the following response: “The Israel police, in cooperation with the IDF and the Shin Bet, strives for equitable enforcement, without any bias, given the understanding of the responsibility to safeguard all residents of the area. The police conduct periodical situation assessments with the relevant bodies in their efforts to deal with the various threats and to provide an operational response daily to security incidents and any disturbances of law and order. When it comes to investigating crimes connected to nationalist motives, the Judea and Samaria District Investigations Unit makes every effort, in close collaboration with the Shin Bet and the State Prosecution, to fully investigate these cases and to bring the lawbreakers to justice. The head of the Judea and Samaria District places great importance on dealing with these incidents and has therefore instructed officers to deal with each incident in a thorough and profound manner.”

The police statement also said, in relation to statistics for nationalist crime, that “every file opened by the Israel Police, irrespective of the identity of those involved and/or the suspects, is classified and counted among the nationalist crime figures if it meets the criteria. Cases involving IDF soldiers are transferred from the Israel Police to the Military Police for further investigation.”

After publication of this article in Hebrew, the IDF submitted the following response: “As a rule, the police are responsible for dealing with acts of violence by civilians and investigating them further.

“As for the claim about the classification of the incidents, all the security agencies have formulated a common language that allows for the documentation and storage of data as required. Thus, any nationalist incident in which an Israeli is involved, including a soldier on leave from his unit, is counted as a nationalist crime incident. In cases where soldiers deviate from orders while on duty, the incident is counted as an event that violates military values and orders. In cases where the incident escalates into a criminal offense, a police investigation or an investigation by the Military Police is conducted, depending on the identity of the suspects and their connection to military service at the time it occurred.

“The criteria according to which civilians are given military weapons are determined in accordance with the law, and, in cases involving the distribution of weapons by the IDF, military orders as well. The process of granting permits and distributing military weapons to civilians is orderly; inter alia, the applicant’s mental health and criminal history are examined. These weapons are distributed in order to safeguard the security of the area and its inhabitants and to bolster the defense of the communities. Any reported cases of soldiers exceeding their authority while armed with military weapons are handled by the commanding officer. In cases of a violation that raises suspicion of a criminal offense, an investigation is opened.

“IDF forces will continue to work in cooperation with the Israel Police and the Shin Bet to ensure a proper and safe way of life for all residents of the area.”

Responding to the specific incidents detailed above, the IDF said that “it is aware” of the alleged house invasion by Matanya Kitzis in July 2024, adding that “it has been handed over to the police and Shin Bet for further investigation.”

Of the point-blank shooting of a Palestinian man in the South Hebron Hills in October 2023, the military said that “the security chief in question was summoned to a hearing with his commanding officer and since then there have been no new complaints about him.”

Asked about the incident in October, when masked settlers prevented Palestinians from harvesting their olives, the military said that “an IDF force was deployed following reports of a clash between Israeli civilians and Palestinians. The incident was dealt with.”

“As for the rest of the incidents,” the statement added, “we were unable to locate any reports that match the descriptions you provided, therefore we cannot respond to them.”

This is a summary of shomrim's story published in Hebrew.
To read the full story click here.

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