Rhino: Agencies – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday denounced Jewish settlers who attacked senior Israeli army officers, including General Avi Balut, commander of the army’s central region in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military said a group of settlers chased Balut and other officers in the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday, preventing them from leaving and hurling insults at them. Five rioters were arrested, it said.

“All acts of violence directed against officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces must be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Some settlers shouted “traitor” at Ballout, who visited Hebron to attend an annual religious event in the city.

Israeli police said dozens of settlers, some of them masked, threw stones at their troops and border guards on Saturday near the West Bank settlement of Itamar.

The West Bank has seen an uptick in violence since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack led by the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on southern Israel, which sparked Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip that has expanded to several other fronts.

Palestinians have been repeatedly targeted by settlers who want Israel to annex the West Bank. The Israeli army is supposed to be responsible for protecting Palestinians, but General Balut admitted in August that the army did not protect civilians when settlers rioted in a town.

Palestinians say they are often left prey to settlers as soldiers do almost nothing to control them.

Some settler youth groups reject Israeli army jurisdiction in areas they consider to be under their control and have attacked Israeli forces.

Settler leaders have said that violence is not in their nature and have called for offenders to be prosecuted.

Most countries consider Jewish settlements built on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 war to be illegal. Israel rejects this and cites historical and biblical ties to the land.