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Israeli soldiers have assisted settlers during attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, a former army official said Sunday.
“There are incidents in which soldiers do not behave as they should,” Nitzan Alon, the former head of the army’s Hostages and Missing Persons Command, said during an event, according to the daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
“There are cases where soldiers stand by and watch illegal and immoral acts, and sometimes even cooperate with them,” he added.
“The responsibility lies with the army’s commanders,” Alon said.
His remarks came amid an escalation in settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Palestinians and rights organizations say many attacks have taken place in the presence of Israeli soldiers and, at times, with their participation.
According to the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, the Israeli army and settlers carried out 2,256 attacks against Palestinians and their land and property in July.
The commission said Israeli forces carried out 1,458 of the attacks, while settlers carried out 798.
The occupied West Bank has seen an escalation in Israeli army raids and settler attacks against Palestinians since Israel launched its war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023.
Masked Israeli settlers attacked and injured a Palestinian woman and three members of an NBC News team in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the U.S. broadcaster reported.
The journalists were interviewing 51-year-old Aida Ahmed Abdullah and her family in the Palestinian town of Jalud, near Nablus, when the attack occurred.
Abdullah told the team that Israeli settlers had forced her family from their home.
She and the journalists were walking down a hill toward the house when a vehicle with Israeli license plates reversed toward them, according to video footage of the incident.
At least four masked men then got out of the vehicle and attacked Abdullah and the journalists with sticks and rocks, NBC News reported.
International correspondent Matt Bradley said he was struck twice in the arm and later treated at a nearby clinic.
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“They jumped out, beat us, then jumped back in the car,” Bradley said.
A cameraman and producer working with Bradley were also injured and received treatment after the attack.
Abdullah was taken for medical treatment by the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Her injuries were not life-threatening, according to a joint statement from the Israeli army and Israel Border Police cited by NBC News.
Her husband, Mahmoud Toubasi, said her condition had improved, but she remained hospitalized Saturday night.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the violence, describing those responsible as “a handful of rioters,” according to NBC News.
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