via the Middle East Monitor
Jewish extremists and terrorists have effectively become “the sovereign” in the occupied West Bank, while the Israeli army protects their illegal activities and serves the political interests of the far-right government, a veteran Israeli military analyst has warned.
Writing for Israel’s Ynet news site, Ron Ben-Yishai said that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), police and Shin Bet internal security agency are no longer capable of enforcing the law against violent settlers.
“The IDF has lost control of the extremists among the settlers and has become a security company for their whims and illegal actions,” Ben-Yishai concluded. He described the situation in which the army protects “Jewish extremists and terrorists” as intolerable.
The extraordinary assessment followed an investigation into a deadly confrontation in the Palestinian village of Tell, near Nablus, last month.
Initial Israeli reports described the incident as a Palestinian “terror attack”. However, Ben-Yishai rejected that account, saying the violence began after dozens of armed Israeli settlers entered the Palestinian village.
Palestinian residents moved to expel the Israeli terror group. During the ensuing struggle, a Palestinian man wrested a rifle from a member of the Havat Gilad settlement security team and opened fire.
Ben-Yishai said that the Palestinian man manage to snatch the weapon “Only after the IDF removed the weapon strap from his back and neck and swung it”.
Israeli reserve soldier Benayahu Mellet and Israeli army officer Major Yuval Ezra were killed. Four Palestinians were also killed in the exchange of fire.
Ben-Yishai stressed that the Palestinians had not arrived armed and that there was no evidence of a planned attack. The violence, he argued, escalated only after the Israeli terror group entered the village despite knowing that the army would probably have refused to approve their excursion.
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Israeli settlers raid the Old City of Hebron under the protection of Israeli security forces in the West Bank, Palestine on May 9, 2026. (Mamoun Wazwaz- Anatolu Agency)