Six Dead Near Nablus, and Netanyahu's Answer Is More Outposts
Four days after a leak revealed he privately called settler violence a "metastasizing cancer," the prime minister responded to a lethal incident sparked by an unauthorised settler hike by ordering new settlements.
On Friday, near the village of Tell outside Nablus, a group of Israelis the army says was hiking without military approval clashed with Palestinians; two Israelis and four Palestinians were killed. Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz announced demolitions, "intensive operations" in villages designated terror hotbeds, revoked work permits, new checkpoints and separated traffic routes — and accelerated legalisation of farm outposts plus the establishment of new ones. Overnight the IDF raided at least ten Palestinian towns, sealed Nablus, imposed curfews on Burin and Tell, and conducted an operation inside a Nablus hospital. Settlers raided Jit, Burin, Urif and Far'ata; at least eleven Palestinians were wounded. The army says it decided two weeks ago to move troops from the Lebanon and Gaza fronts to the West Bank, citing 126 outposts it struggles to protect.
Assessment: The gap between what Netanyahu says privately and does publicly is now the story. Channel 13 revealed on July 20 that the cabinet quietly approved a plan to curb settler violence in March, with the prime minister calling the phenomenon a "metastasizing cancer" — a summary kept secret for political reasons. His own count of violent settlers has drifted from seventy youths to a hundred and fifty delinquents, against 867 recorded nationalist-crime incidents in 2025. Haaretz reports the army has launched a "Greater Israel" unit patch and that officers up to Central Command level now argue settler farms enhance security: the institution has absorbed the settlement project's logic, three months from an election. Note that the hiking account, the arrest counts and the deployment figures are army-provided, and that video from Tell appears inconsistent with the official version.