Netanyahu Blames 150 Youths and Lenient Courts for West Bank Settler Attacks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a US network interview aired this week that West Bank settler attacks drawing international criticism come from about 150 juvenile delinquents outside the settler community, and blamed Israeli courts for excessive leniency toward the cases the police and military bring. He said the overwhelming majority of Judea and Samaria settlers are model citizens who serve in the IDF and obey the law, and rejected vigilantism as a violation of basic Israeli norms whether committed by Jews or Arabs. Netanyahu said he would look into the July 2025 killing of Palestinian-American Sayfollah Musallet near Sinjil, and pledged to challenge what he called judicial reluctance to punish the small youth cohort.