Israeli settler violence rises as Netanyahu faces pressure

JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister met with top security officials to assess a rising tide of Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, an Israeli official said Friday, as he faces increasing U.S. pressure to halt the flare-up that could undermine Washington’s peace plan for Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his security cabinet late Thursday, bringing together officials from the military, the country’s domestic security service Shin Bet and police to discuss the recent spike in violence, according to an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to talk about a closed-door meeting.

The Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to request for comment about what was discussed at the meeting. The Israeli official said there would be a follow-up meeting.

Washington is hoping Israel can contain the rising settler violence to avoid jeopardizing the U.N. Security Council-approved U.S. plan for Gaza, which authorizes an international force to provide security and envisions a possible path to an independent Palestinian state.

Netanyahu has called the perpetrators “a handful of extremists” and urged law enforcement to pursue them for “the attempt to take the law into their own hands.” But rights groups and Palestinians say the problem is far greater than a few bad apples, and attacks have become a daily phenomenon across the territory.

Israel’s government is dominated by far-right proponents of the settler movement including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who formulates settlement policy, and Cabinet minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the nation’s police force.

The U.N. Humanitarian office reported that October saw the highest number of Israeli settler attacks since it began tracking in 2006, with more than 260 incidents causing injuries or property damage. That’s on top of 2,660 settler attacks recorded this year through the end of September.

The security cabinet meeting comes a day after Israel’s Civil Administration announced plans to expropriate large swaths of Sebastia, a major archaeological site in the West Bank. Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group, said the site is around 1,800 dunams (450 acres) — Israel’s largest seizure of archaeologically important land.

Separately, Israeli settlers celebrated the creation of a new, unauthorized settlement near Bethlehem.

Singapore slaps sanctions on Israeli settlers

Singapore said Friday it will impose targeted financial sanctions and entry bans on four Israeli individuals for what it said was their involvement in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Singapore’s Foreign Ministry named the individuals as Meir Ettinger,Elisha Yered, Ben-Zion Gopstein and Baruch Marzel. Some are currently under international sanction by the European Union, the U.K. and other countries.

In a statement, Singapore’s Foreign Ministry said the settlers have been involved in “egregious acts of extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank” and urged the Israeli government to stop the violence and hold the perpetrators accountable.

“Such actions are unlawful and undermine and jeopardize prospects for a two-State solution,” the Foreign Ministry said, adding that it viewed Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal and that their presence and expansion make it much more difficult to reach a viable two-State solution.

Ettinger is the grandson of U.S.-born Rabbi Meir Kahane, a notorious extremist, whose ultranationalist party was banned from Israel’s parliament for its racist views in 1988 and who was killed by an Arab gunman in New York in 1990.

Marzel is a former aide to Kahane.

Yered is a leading figure for Hilltop Youth — a group of Jewish teenagers and young men who occupy West Bank hilltops and have been accused of attacking Palestinians and their property. He was accused of involvement in the death of a 19-year-old Palestinian last year but was never charged.

Gopstein is the founder and leader of Lehava, an organization whose members have assaulted Palestinian civilians, according to a sanctions order from the Biden administration. Trump lifted Biden-era sanctions on extremist settlers shortly after taking office.