By Said Amouri
JERUSALEM (AA) – Israel's internal security service Shin Bet warned Thursday that rising attacks by illegal Israeli settlers on Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank could lead to a collapse of national security.
The warning came in a message sent by Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Israel’s Channel 12.
In the message, Bar cautioned that “the increasing crimes committed by settlers in the West Bank will lead to an explosion of violence and further bloodshed between both sides, ultimately causing a national security collapse in Israel,” it reported.
Reacting to this, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid described Bar’s remarks as “a final warning against the next disaster.”
“The government will not be able to claim ‘we did not know.’ The prime minister will not be able to say, ‘They did not pull the lapels of my coats.’ They have been warned. The government of disasters is once again marching towards the next collapse of national security,” Lapid posted on the social media platform X.
He called for the removal of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and his group of extremists “from any decision-making center,” adding that “the mass violations of the law in Yosh (West Bank) need to be stopped with a heavy hand.”
On Sunday, Israeli military officials also warned of the rising illegal settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, coupled with a decline in arrests by Israeli police.
The police force is overseen by Ben-Gvir, who has been accused even by left-wing Israeli politicians of turning a blind eye to illegal settler violence against Palestinians.
In May, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem revealed a plan by Netanyahu's government in coordination with illegal settlers aimed at displacing Palestinian shepherds and residents from their lands in the West Bank. B'Tselem described this as part of the “Israeli apartheid system.”
Israeli estimates indicate that over 720,000 illegal settlers reside in West Bank settlements, including East Jerusalem.
Over the past few years, the Israeli army has conducted regular raids in the occupied West Bank, which escalated after the Israel-Hamas war began last October.
Palestinians have also been violently attacked by illegal Israeli settlers.
At least 640 Palestinians have since been killed and over 5,400 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.
In a landmark opinion on July 19, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio