US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said “there’s some concern” about events in the West Bank undermining efforts to maintain the ceasefire in Gaza, in his first remarks on the latest spate of settler violence.
“Certainly there’s some concern about events in the West Bank spilling over and creating an effect that could undermine what we’re doing in Gaza,” Rubio told reporters before clarifying that he hopes the violence doesn’t undermine the ceasefire and does not expect it too either.
Rubio hailed the condemnations that were issued by President Isaac Herzog and senior commanders in the IDF against the settler violence, a day after dozens of Israelis launched a large-scale arson attack on Palestinians in the West Bank, targeting factories and farmland between the major cities of Nablus and Tulkarem.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the rest of his coalition have been mum on the phenomenon, as critics accuse the government of tacitly backing the attacks, which have been taking place on a near-daily basis.
Though he avoided an outright condemnation, Rubio’s comments marked a rare instance in which US President Donald Trump’s administration weighed in on the issue of settler violence.
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On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order ending the sanctions regime established a year earlier by then-president Joe Biden against extremist settler individuals and entities.
Attacks have continued unabated since, including repeated raids of several Christian villages. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who is an ordained pastor, paid a visit to one of those towns in July and called for those targeting the village to be brought to justice, but no indictments have been filed to date.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to traveling journalists at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, on November 12, 2025, after the G7 foreign ministers meeting. (Mandel Ngan/Pool Photo via AP)
Prosecution of such crimes by Israel is highly rare. The commander of the police’s West Bank division is under investigation for ignoring settler violence in order to curry favor in the eyes of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the police. The commander was still allowed to return to the police force, as the probe into his conduct continues.
Only four suspects were arrested for the Tuesday attack, three of whom were freed by Wednesday.
The IDF and police have traded blame over Israel’s inability to rein in the phenomenon, while some security officials were quoted as privately faulting the government, whose far-right members have ties to the perpetrators.
The Trump administration has also sought to limit international attention on the matter.
A Palestinian man inspects parts of a burnt house after an Israeli settlers attack in the village of Beit Lid, east of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank on November 11, 2025. (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP)
A G7 statement issued on Wednesday sufficed with member states ministers pledging to “continue to maintain attention on the situation in the West Bank.”
Last year, when a similar statement was crafted while Biden was still in office, it said, “We express our concern for the deteriorating security situation in the West Bank. All parties must refrain from unilateral actions and from divisive statements that may undermine the prospect of a two-state solution, including Israel’s expansion of settlements, legalization of settlement outposts and any annexation of the West Bank.”
Just as Rubio wrapped up his comments, reports came in of another settler attack, this time targeting the West Bank village of Sinjil north of Ramallah, where the perpetrators were said to open fire at the village’s civilian guard.
A young man was struck in the foot by the live fire, though, his injuries were characterized as minor, Palestinian Authority’s official Wafa news site and Al Jazeera reported.
“This crime is part of an escalating spate of attacks by settlers who are supported by the occupation army,” the Sinjil Municipality said in a statement.
Palestinians and journalists survey damage in an industrial zone following an attack by Israeli settlers the previous day in the West Bank village of Beit Lid, near Tulkarm, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
As settler attacks rise, police enforcement has plummeted, data shows
The number of police investigations into Jewish nationalist violence in the West Bank has sharply declined over the past three years, even as settler attacks on Palestinians have reached all-time highs, according to a Channel 12 news report.
Under far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. there has been a 73% decline in the number of investigations opened since 2023, according to the outlet. Police have opened only 60 investigations into settler violence this year, compared to 150 cases in 2024 and 235 cases in 2023, despite reports of attacks going up over that period.
The report said just 10% of investigations led to indictments in 2023, a figure even lower the next year, though the network did not specify the exact percentage and simply noted that the majority of probes have stalled or were closed with no charges filed.
Ben Gvir, who resides in a West Bank settlement, worked as a lawyer who often represented far-right Jewish Israelis accused of extremist violence before entering politics, after having himself been convicted on incitement and terrorism charges several times.
The decline in the number of investigations goes hand-in-hand with a marked rise in settler violence, with over 704 incidents of “nationalistic crime” recorded by the IDF since the start of the year. In all of 2024, the IDF recorded 675 incidents of nationalistic crime.
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