IDF officials are urging the reinstatement of administrative detention orders as settler violence escalates in the West Bank, highlighting the army's struggle with limited police support, political interference, and rising resentment among overstretched reserve troops. With frustration mounting over the wave of violence by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinians, the IDF is signaling that its patience has run out. In a special meeting, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir was asked by brigade commanders in the West Bank Division to intervene immediately, recommending the revival of administrative detention orders previously canceled by Defense Minister Israel Katz under pressure from ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The urgent request came even before a violent raid by the Hilltop Youth on a Palestinian-Bedouin farm in southern Mount Hebron, where settlers stabbed and hurled goats and sheep at a Palestinian building while masked and filmed by security cameras, inflicting extensive damage. Similar violent incursions take place weekly, sometimes daily. Within the IDF, commanders say red lines have been crossed, and direct blame is placed on ministers in the government, who at times physically confront soldiers when they come to evacuate illegal outposts. The apparent permissive environment has permeated to the Israel Police, which rarely enforces the law and almost never arrests suspects in such cases.
In response to the extreme violence, the army has taken off the gloves, assigning hundreds of troops to secure friction hotspots in Palestinian villages and between them, and to protect illegal outposts that have not yet been cleared. The Central Command has redeployed bulldozers and excavators from the Gaza envelope to carry out demolitions of illegal structures in the West Bank region. Army officials assess that the current wave of violence stems in part from vengeance against the system for freeing 74 convicted Palestinian terrorists under the hostages release deal and for the demolition of illegal outposts. Some of the freed terrorists returned to homes near the sites of their deadly attacks, increasing tension alongside lethal attacks emanating from the West Bank.
The IDF is also troubled by a negative shift since October 7th: in many previously moderate communities, local residents now refuse to allow Palestinians into orchards near their settlements for the olive harvest, even on Palestinian land, out of fear that some harvesters are potential terrorists. This condition further stretches the thin manpower cushion, as local residents demand Border Police or Yamam protection for the olive harvest. Army officials take solace in the fact that the Shin Bet remains committed to the fight against the phenomenon and does not frame such incidents as mere criminal offenses or education issues.
According to IDF and Shin Bet figures, since the war began, there have been approximately 1,575 'nationalist crime' incidents in the West Bank, with a quarterly upward trend over the past two years. In the first half of 2025, the number reached 440, a 39% increase compared with the first half of 2024. In 2024, there were 675 such incidents against Palestinians; this year, with roughly six weeks remaining, the count stands at 704. A breakdown by type shows that 368 were classified as 'popular terrorism,' 143 as violent disturbances, 98 as full-blown attacks, 49 targeted IDF or police forces by Jews, and 46 were agricultural property crimes.
Part of the trend is attributed to the surge in the number of agricultural farms established, some of which trigger violent disputes over grazing land. Since the start of the year, 174 Palestinians have been injured in nationalist crime incidents, a 12% increase compared with the year before, with a total of 376 Palestinians harmed since the war began. Sources in the settlement sector say an anarchistic extremist core has emerged within the Hilltop Youth in recent months, a faction that answers to no authority and is believed to drive most of the serious incidents, resulting in a near collapse of control that severely endangers the fragile security stability in the West Bank.
The police say the IDF, as sovereign in Areas B and C, is responsible for preventing violent incidents in those zones, while the Israel Police retains investigative authority over terror, extremist violence, and insurrection. In every case of extreme violence, the police act to bring perpetrators to justice. Deployment of forces in the West Bank is derived from jurisdictional responsibilities with the goal of preventing violent events.
