Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the coverage of recurring violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is “bloated” and disproportionate to the actual problem, which he said amounts to “a handful of kids.”
Violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has continued to escalate for months as mobs of settler extremists attempt to force the civilians out of their homes, clashing with Israel Defense Forces personnel sent to quell the crowds at times.
“When they’re talking about [West Bank violence], they’re talking about a handful of kids,” Netanyahu told Fox News on Tuesday. “We actually located it. It’s about 70 kids. They’re not from the West Bank.”
Netanyahu went on to say the political violence mostly amounts to vandalism and arson.
“They’re actually teenagers who come from broken homes, and they do things like chopping olive trees, and sometimes they try to burn a home,” he said. “I can’t accept that. That’s vigilantism. I’m taking that out.”
The Israel Defense Forces have documented approximately 752 incidents of “nationalistic crime” and “settler violence” in 2025.
It has become a daily liability for both Muslims and Christians in the region, whose day-to-day lives have become completely upheaved by the largely unpunished mob violence. Homes, vehicles, and farmland have been burned. Palestinians have been beaten on camera and even killed.
The Foreign Press Association said last month that “journalists, both local and foreign, have proven to be a clear target as they document an unprecedented level of unchecked violence against Palestinians during this year’s olive harvest.”
The future of the West Bank has become a wedge between Netanyahu and his most important ally, President Donald Trump.
The White House has promised to prevent further annexation of the West Bank, which Zionist officials in Israel believe rightfully belongs to the Jewish people as the Biblical lands of Judea and Samaria.
In October, a preliminary vote in the Knesset sought to formally annex the region — an action that Vice President JD Vance told Israeli media amounted to a “very stupid political stunt.”
“I personally take some insult to it,” Vance said. “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”
Trump later told the press that “Israel is not going to do anything with the West Bank,” but it seems that Israel’s most vehement Zionists did not get the president’s message.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Sunday that the Israeli Cabinet granted recognition to 19 more settlements in the West Bank.
These settlements, explicitly intended to encroach upon Palestinian territory and prevent the possibility of a Palestinian state, are illegal under international law.
“The people of Israel are returning to their land, building it and strengthening their hold on it. This is simple, correct and moral Zionism. We are stopping the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state. We will continue to develop, build and settle in the land of our ancestors, with faith in the righteousness of the path,” Smotrich wrote on X, according to a translation.
Trump touched on his disagreements with the Israeli government following a bilateral meeting with Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago on Monday. The president reportedly warned Netanyahu during their Monday meeting that an escalation of violence in the West Bank could threaten the peace process in Gaza.
“We have had a discussion, big discussion, for a long time on the West Bank,” Trump told the press after the meeting. “I wouldn’t say we agree on the West Bank 100%, but we will come to a conclusion on the West Bank.”
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Netanyahu told Fox News that “a lot of daylight” remains between the White House and his Cabinet on the West Bank question, but he remains confident they share the same mission.
“I think we both want to see a future in which that territory is not used for terrorist attacks,” the prime minister said. “We have done a lot of things in that regard. We also want to build a lot of infrastructure there. Both for us and for our Palestinian neighbors, and I think there is a lot of room to talk about it.”