ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday (August 30), condemned the actions of Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Qusra and said that they should not interfere with the military's operations.
In remarks broadcast by Israeli Channel 14, a broadcaster known as providing a more sympathetic coverage of Netanyahu's government, the Israeli Prime Minister emphasized that security operations must be left entirely to formal state institutions, including the military and police.
"Do you want to enter the village? You will not enter. That is not your job," Netanyahu said, adding he will not tolerate it.
Netanyahu said the incursions are greatly damaging to the Israeli settlement enterprise, drawing both international and local scrutiny.
Despite his warnings against such actions, Netanyahu strongly reaffirmed his commitment to expanding Israeli presence in the West Bank, which Israelis refer to by the biblical names Judea and Samaria.
Netanyahu urged settlers to trust state authorities to carry out building and security operations in the territory.
Dozens of masked Israeli settler militants attacked homes surrounding the occupied West Bank village of Qusra on Saturday(August 29), the first major attack since a siege by settlers in the area earlier this month drew an international outcry.
The settlers surrounded a Palestinian home, throwing stones while seven Palestinians were trapped inside, according to witnesses who spoke to Reuters.
Rights groups say the increasing settler presence on the edge of Palestinian villages, like Qusra, is part of a wider effort by settlers to seize more land from Palestinians, further eating into territory where Palestinians aim to establish a state.
Violence by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank has increased, with some emboldened by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has overseen a massive settlement expansion in the territory.
