Yehuda Fox said the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank is in Israel’s security interests.
An Israeli general has condemned the government’s decision to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank and criticized the rise in settler violence in the area, according to Israeli media.
Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fox, the outgoing head of Israel’s Central Command, said at a farewell ceremony Monday that Israeli settlers had committed a “nationalist crime” through violence in the occupied West Bank, which he said had “sown chaos and fear among Palestinian residents who posed no threat.”
“That’s not Judaism to me. At least not the one I grew up with in my parents’ house. That’s not the way of the Torah. That’s adopting the ways of the enemy,” Fox said.
Israeli forces and settlers have stepped up raids on Palestinian towns and villages in the occupied West Bank since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October.
Since October, at least 553 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the territory, and 9,510 have been arrested, according to Palestinian officials.
Fox’s comments come just days after the Israeli government approved 5,295 new homes in a slew of illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank.
About 3 million Palestinians live in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and more than 500,000 Israelis reside in more than 100 settlements throughout the territory. Settlement expansion remains a major obstacle to the now-suspended plans of the Oslo Accords, which promised the gradual transfer of Israeli-controlled areas to the Palestinians.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, has overseen a major escalation of settlement expansion under Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Fox acknowledged that it was his responsibility, as head of the command in charge of the occupied West Bank, to “take action” and address settler expansion and violence, but regretted that he had not “always succeeded.”
“The ability of the Central Command to fulfill its missions also depends on the existence of a functioning and strong Palestinian Authority, with effective security mechanisms to maintain public order. Proactively undermining the security reality on this front endangers the security of the State of Israel,” Fox added.
On Tuesday, Israeli Army Radio reported that 340 settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been recorded since the beginning of 2024.
The Israeli military says its actions are aimed at eradicating the activities of Palestinian armed groups with which Israeli soldiers have often exchanged fire during their incursions.
Fox said the central command has managed to ensure that violence in the occupied West Bank does not escalate and become “a main front” amid a war in Gaza that continues to rage.