According to reports, the head of the agency warned the cabinet that the situation might explode; The Minister of Defense indicates that most of the attackers are not from the settlements; The United States and France condemn the attacks

The Shin Bet security service warned the government of its fears of an outbreak of violence in the West Bank, citing increasing settler violence and clashes with Palestinians amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Hebrew media reported on Sunday.

Channel 12 reported that Shin Bet head Ronen Bar warned the war cabinet, the broader government and the defense establishment about the issue.

The United States and France also warned that the situation in the West Bank had reached a boiling point.

The report quoted Israeli sources as saying: “These events are likely to lead to a fire in the region” and harm the war effort against Hamas.

Channel 12 said that some Israeli decision-makers are urging the extreme right-wing ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir to “take responsibility and calm things down.”

The two ministers have defended settler violence as self-defense in the past and resisted taking action against it.

According to Channel 13, Bar and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy addressed the issue of settler violence in a war cabin on Saturday.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reportedly responded that “the phenomenon is well-known. “We need to make sure the area doesn’t catch fire.”

Gallant said that most of the violence is committed by people who do not live in the settlements.

The Israeli organization Yesh Din said on Monday that more than 100 incidents of violence and attacks by settlers against Palestinians have occurred in at least 62 Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank since the Hamas attack on October 7, and the beginning of the Israeli military campaign against the movement in Gaza.

As a result of recurring violence in the West Bank, residents of Qarnet Onizan, a small Palestinian community located in the South Hebron Hills, have begun packing up and leaving, Yehuda Shaul, a human rights activist and co-director of Ofek - the Israel Center for Public Affairs, said in a tweet. Posted on Sunday.

He added that the Qarnet Onizan community consists of four families with a population of about 35 people, and is located across the road from Khirbet Zanuta – another village whose residents abandoned it due to settler violence, which has intensified since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

Shaul described the situation as “forced deportation.”

On Saturday, a Palestinian man named Bilal Muhammad Saleh (40 years old) was killed after a settler allegedly shot him in the chest outside the village of Al-Sawiya, about 15 kilometers south of Yitzhar.

According to the Haaretz newspaper, Saleh was part of a group working to pick olives outside the village near the city of Nablus when its members were attacked by settlers.

The settler who reportedly fired the fatal shot is an off-duty Israeli soldier, who had left the nearby settlement of Rahalim with members of his family shortly before the shooting.

Also on Sunday, prominent settler activist Ariel Danino was placed in administrative detention for four months after Defense Minister Yoav Galant approved the order, which allows authorities to detain a suspect without charges for indefinitely renewable periods and which the Shin Bet reportedly approved. - He indicated “a reasonable basis for assuming that state security/public security requires” Dino’s detention.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Sunday denounced the “completely unacceptable” escalation in settler violence since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, and said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “bears responsibility for reining in the settlers.”

“This is an ongoing challenge,” Sullivan told CNN. “We expect, over time, to see the Israeli government intensify its efforts on this issue, and we expect that extremist settlers who engage in this type of violence will be held accountable.”

France also condemned the “unacceptable” attacks by Israeli settlers, noting “the killing of many Palestinian civilians during the past few days in Qusra and Al-Sawiya, as well as the forced displacement of a number of communities,” according to a statement by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden criticized Israel for not curbing settler violence, while continuing to support its military operations in Gaza against Hamas.

“I remain concerned about extremist settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank,” Biden said, adding that the violence “adds fuel to the fire.”

“They attack Palestinians in places where they have the right to be. “This has to stop now.”

Biden urged Netanyahu during phone calls in recent days to ensure that Israeli authorities prevent increasing incidents of settler violence, fearing that rising tensions in the West Bank could significantly worsen the current war in Gaza, the Axios news site reported on Wednesday.

Yesh Din said that in various incidents, settlers stole Palestinian property such as solar panels and generators, and carried out acts of vandalism such as burning homes and vehicles and uprooting trees. The group claimed that no settlers were arrested, detained, or investigated following the attacks. The police did not respond to a request for comment.

The human rights organization said that settler violence often aims to displace Palestinian communities in an attempt to control their homes and lands. Entire shepherd communities have been forced to evacuate since the beginning of the year following an escalation in settler violence, according to Yesh Din.