{"id":567921,"date":"2026-05-05T19:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/567921\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T19:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:28:08","slug":"israeli-army-chief-says-west-bank-troops-killing-like-we-havent-killed-since-1967-west-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/567921\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli army chief says West Bank troops \u2018killing like we haven\u2019t killed since 1967\u2019 | West Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Israeli army chief in the West Bank<\/a> has said his troops were \u201ckilling like we haven\u2019t killed since 1967\u201d, including fatally shooting Palestinian stone-throwers, according to an Israeli report of his comments.<\/p>\n

The remarks by Maj Gen Avi Bluth, head of the army\u2019s central command, were made in a recent closed forum but were leaked to Israel\u2019s Haaretz newspaper<\/a>. Bluth has so far not denied the authenticity of the Haaretz account. The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Bluth, who was born in a West Bank settlement and educated in a religious military academy in the occupied territory, spoke bluntly about the discriminatory military justice his soldiers administered.<\/p>\n

He said they had shot 42 Palestinian stone-throwers on West Bank roads last year, insisting that such acts amounted to terrorism. Bluth said the army did not shoot Jewish settler militants for doing the same thing, noting that on one occasion when a settler throwing stones at motorists had been wounded by army gunfire, there was a public \u201cruckus\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny such incident has very serious consequences from a societal perspective,\u201d Bluth said, according to the reported remarks, openly admitting: \u201cYes, it involves discrimination.\u201d Palestinians are subjected to military law in the West Bank and extended detention without trial, while Israelis are judged by civilian courts.<\/p>\n

Bluth said another way he had loosened legal constraints on Israeli soldiers in the West Bank was to allow the maiming of Palestinians caught trying to cross the separation barrier into Israel in search of work.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the [separation barrier], it is currently permitted to detain a suspect by shooting him at the knee or below to create \u2018barrier awareness\u2019,\u201d Bluth said, adding that it served as a deterrent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of \u2018limping monuments\u2019 in Palestinian villages of those who tried to [cross the barrier], so there is a price being paid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As with stone-throwers, Bluth justified his rules of engagement on the grounds that each illegal Palestinian worker was a \u201cpotential terrorist\u201d. The general also portrayed his actions as part of a \u201csurvival of the fittest\u201d struggle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone comes to kill you, kill them first is the norm in the Middle East, so we\u2019re killing like we haven\u2019t killed since 1967,\u201d Bluth said, in reference to the war against Arab states that resulted in the permanent occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Thousands of Palestinians were killed in the second intifada from 2000 to 2005.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis apartheidist approach, under which the army shoots only Palestinian stone-throwers, not Jewish ones, was justified on the grounds of the \u2018sociological consequences\u2019 of shooting at the latter,\u201d Haaretz said in an editorial, asking: \u201cDid he take into account the \u2018sociological consequences\u2019 of these \u2018lame monuments\u2019 on the Palestinians?\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the resulting war in Gaza, Israeli settlers have conducted an escalating campaign of violent intimidation of Palestinians in the West Bank with the aim of driving them off their land. In that campaign, they have routinely been abetted by the Israeli army, which is increasingly made up of soldiers and officers drawn from the settlements.<\/p>\n

According to UN figures, 230 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers in 2025.<\/p>\n

Bluth had sparked controversy a few days earlier<\/a> with a warning, also reported in Haaretz, that \u201cJewish terror\u201d carried out by extremists, known as \u201chilltop youth\u201d, would ultimately trigger an uprising.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people don\u2019t see Arabs as human beings and think it\u2019s possible to burn people alive, to burn houses down with their occupants inside, and unfortunately, they do this frequently,\u201d Bluth said, according to the Haaretz account.<\/p>\n

The general said \u201cit\u2019s almost a miracle that the Palestinians are still indifferent\u201d but added they \u201cwon\u2019t remain indifferent indefinitely\u201d and warned of the possibility of a West Bank uprising.<\/p>\n

\u201cBluth has now revealed what everyone already knew: the Israel Defense Forces is working hand in hand with the settlers who are carrying out the daily pogroms,\u201d Haaretz commented. \u201cBluth calls it Israeli terrorism, but not only does he not try to prevent it in the same way that the IDF prevents Palestinian terrorism, but he is actually abetting it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Israeli army chief in the West Bank has said his troops were \u201ckilling like we haven\u2019t killed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-567921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}