JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL
Police investigations into attacks by illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank have significantly fallen despite rising complaints from Palestinians, Israeli media said Monday.
The daily Haaretz, citing police data, said that 427 complaints were filed in the first half of 2025 regarding settler attacks in the West Bank, up from 680 throughout 2024.
However, only 144 criminal investigations were opened between January and June, representing about 33% of the total complaints filed by Palestinians, down from 308 investigations (about 45%) in 2024.
Most of the opened cases, the newspaper noted, were related to property damage, assault, arson, and stone-throwing on nationalist grounds.
It also cited a small increase in the number of settlers arrested on suspicion of nationalist crimes in 2025, with only 44 arrests reported in the first half of the year, down from 71 arrests in all of 2024.
Haaretz said the West Bank Central Unit, responsible for investigating settler terrorism and nationalist crimes, has been operating without a permanent commander for nearly a year.
According to the paper, the unit’s previous commander, Avishai Mualem, was transferred from his post after an investigation was opened against him for deliberately ignoring intelligence about attacks by illegal settlers and far-right activists and avoiding their arrest.
He is suspected of “trying to please National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to obtain a promotion,” the newspaper said.
The daily noted that settler attacks in the occupied West Bank have intensified since the start of the olive harvest season in mid-October.
According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, illegal Israeli settlers have carried out more than 7,000 attacks against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023. These include 158 assaults targeting olive pickers since the beginning of this month.
Last week, the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) approved in a preliminary reading a bill to annex the West Bank, a move that, if implemented, would eliminate the possibility of a two-state solution.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.