Palestinians stand at the scene where vehicles and homes were set on fire following an attack by extremist Jewish settlers on the village of Deir al-Hatab, east of Nablus in the West Bank, March 22, 2026.
In a stunning move mid-war, the IDF on Monday announced that it is diverting forces from the invasion of Lebanon to the West Bank to rein in Jewish violence against Palestinians that it has lost control over in recent weeks.
There have been times in the past when the more critical northern and southern fronts were quiet, when more soldiers were sent to Judea and Samaria to bring Palestinian terror under control.
However, this is the first time that in the middle of a critical invasion – in this case against Hezbollah in Lebanon – IDF soldiers were diverted to what is viewed as a less dangerous front in the West Bank, because Jewish violence against Palestinians has hit such large volumes that IDF Central Command Chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth did not believe he had sufficient forces to restore order.
Mourners carry the body of a Palestinian reportedly killed by an Israeli settler, near Hebron in the West Bank.
Special permission given to control growth of violence
As part of obtaining that approval, multiple IDF commanders for Judea and Samaria pleaded with Netanyahu to grant them more forces to overcome the large-scale problem.
Although Bluth has described the problem as a mere 200-300 anarchists, his thousands of soldiers, whose primary mission is security for Jewish settlements and holding back Palestinian terror, have failed to stop the recent spread and growth of Jewish violence against Palestinians.
On Sunday night, The Jerusalem Post was told by IDF sources that they had preemptively deployed soldiers in areas designed to prevent Jewish extremists from being able to maneuver to attack Palestinians, and yet those forces still failed in that mission.
There were dozens of anti-Palestinian incidents on Sunday night, with the IDF acknowledging some of the incidents and its inability to prevent them from occurring.
IDF sources have also made it clear that they feel unable to put down the wave of Jewish violence against Palestinians without the full support of the police, the Shin Bet, the courts, and the government.
