Israeli
army chief says West Bank troops ‘killing like we haven’t killed since 1967’
Leaked
remarks by Maj Gen Avi Bluth describe fatal shootings of stone-throwers and
different treatment for Jewish settlers
Julian
Borger in Jerusalem
Tue 5 May
2026 18.08 BST
The
Israeli army chief in the West Bank has said his troops were “killing like we
haven’t killed since 1967”, including fatally shooting Palestinian
stone-throwers, according to an Israeli report of his comments.
The
remarks by Maj Gen Avi Bluth, head of the army’s central command, were made in
a recent closed forum but were leaked to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. Bluth has
so far not denied the authenticity of the Haaretz account. The Israel Defense
Forces did not respond to a request for comment.
Bluth,
who was born in a West Bank settlement and educated in a religious military
academy in the occupied territory, spoke bluntly about the discriminatory
military justice his soldiers administered.
He said
they had shot 42 Palestinian stone-throwers on West Bank roads last year,
insisting that such acts amounted to terrorism. Bluth said the army did not
shoot Jewish settler militants for doing the same thing, noting that on one
occasion when a settler throwing stones at motorists had been wounded by army
gunfire, there was a public “ruckus”.
“Any such
incident has very serious consequences from a societal perspective,” Bluth
said, according to the reported remarks, openly admitting: “Yes, it involves
discrimination.” Palestinians are subjected to military law in the West Bank
and extended detention without trial, while Israelis are judged by civilian
courts.
Bluth
said another way he had loosened legal constraints on Israeli soldiers in the
West Bank was to allow the maiming of Palestinians caught trying to cross the
separation barrier into Israel in search of work.
“At the
[separation barrier], it is currently permitted to detain a suspect by shooting
him at the knee or below to create ‘barrier awareness’,” Bluth said, adding
that it served as a deterrent.
“There
are a lot of ‘limping monuments’ in Palestinian villages of those who tried to
[cross the barrier], so there is a price being paid,” he said.
As with
stone-throwers, Bluth justified his rules of engagement on the grounds that
each illegal Palestinian worker was a “potential terrorist”. The general also
portrayed his actions as part of a “survival of the fittest” struggle.
“If
someone comes to kill you, kill them first is the norm in the Middle East, so
we’re killing like we haven’t killed since 1967,” Bluth said, in reference to
the war against Arab states that resulted in the permanent occupation of the
West Bank and Gaza. Thousands of Palestinians were killed in the second
intifada from 2000 to 2005.
“His
apartheidist approach, under which the army shoots only Palestinian
stone-throwers, not Jewish ones, was justified on the grounds of the
‘sociological consequences’ of shooting at the latter,” Haaretz said in an
editorial, asking: “Did he take into account the ‘sociological consequences’ of
these ‘lame monuments’ on the Palestinians?”
Since the
7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the resulting war in Gaza, Israeli
settlers have conducted an escalating campaign of violent intimidation of
Palestinians in the West Bank with the aim of driving them off their land. In
that campaign, they have routinely been abetted by the Israeli army, which is
increasingly made up of soldiers and officers drawn from the settlements.
According
to UN figures, 230 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces
and settlers in 2025.
Bluth had
sparked controversy a few days earlier with a warning, also reported in
Haaretz, that “Jewish terror” carried out by extremists, known as “hilltop
youth”, would ultimately trigger an uprising.
“These
people don’t see Arabs as human beings and think it’s possible to burn people
alive, to burn houses down with their occupants inside, and unfortunately, they
do this frequently,” Bluth said, according to the Haaretz account.
The
general said “it’s almost a miracle that the Palestinians are still
indifferent” but added they “won’t remain indifferent indefinitely” and warned
of the possibility of a West Bank uprising.
“Bluth
has now revealed what everyone already knew: the Israel Defense Forces is
working hand in hand with the settlers who are carrying out the daily pogroms,”
Haaretz commented. “Bluth calls it Israeli terrorism, but not only does he not
try to prevent it in the same way that the IDF prevents Palestinian terrorism,
but he is actually abetting it.”
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