The number of attacks by extremist Jewish settlers against Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the West Bank rose by 27 percent in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to data recorded by the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency.

The number of severe incidents of “nationalistic crime” by settler extremists, classified by Israeli security bodies as terrorism, also rose by over 50%, according to the data, which was shown to reporters on Monday.

The attacks, which occur on a near-daily basis, largely go unchecked. Prosecutions of Jewish extremists are rare, and convictions are even rarer. Critics have accused the government, described as the most hardline in Israel’s history, of shrugging off the attacks.

Officials at the IDF’s Central Command, responsible for the West Bank and Jordan Valley, said they felt a sense of failure for their inability to mitigate the increasing violence.

Throughout 2025, the IDF and Shin Bet recorded 867 incidents of “nationalistic crime,” compared to 682 last year, representing an increase of 27%. In 2023, the year of Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught, the military recorded 1,045 incidents.

In addition to the overall rise in settler attacks, in 2025 there was also an increase in the number of severe incidents, including shootings, arson, and other violent crimes: 128 in the past year, compared with 83 in 2024 and 54 in 2023, according to the data.

The military and Shin Bet believe there are some 300 Jewish extremists involved in the violent attacks, 70 of whom are considered the “hardcore” fanatics behind the more severe attacks.

The 300 extremists largely live in 42 illegal outposts across the West Bank, according to Israeli defense officials, and as many as half of them are technically registered as living in various towns and cities in Israel proper.

Of the 70 “hardcore” extremists, 39 are under restraining orders signed by Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, preventing them from entering the West Bank, or alternatively, putting them under house arrest if they are registered as living in settlements. Bluth also recently okayed the use of electronic monitoring bracelets for the extremist settlers under house arrest, though only two bracelets have been issued, and as of........

© The Times of Israel