An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) investigation into a riot in a Palestinian village in the West Bank says its first wave of responders did not act decisively enough to stop the violence.
A second wave did, and acted bravely, risking their own lives to secure and give first aid to the villagers of Jit, the Aug. 28 report said. During the incident, one Palestinian was killed and another wounded. Three people who were subsequently arrested are still in custody.
The report comes as heavy fighting went into its third day in the West Bank, a de facto third front in Israel’s war along with the Gaza Strip and Lebanese border.
The army hit the West Bank city of Jenin with an airstrike targeting what the IDF called a terrorist cell. About 16 Palestinians, nearly all fighters, were killed.
The report said the counterterrorist Israel Security Agency, also called Shin Bet, received word on the evening of Aug. 15 that an organized group of Israeli civilians in vehicles were planning “to carry out nationalist crime” in the area.
Army, police, and border police units were preemptively deployed to the area at key intersections and main roads in an attempt to prevent the incident, the report said. Because an alert was in effect due to previous incidents in the area, they were already organized on how to deploy.
At about 8 p.m., “about one hundred masked Israeli civilians entered the town of Jit in Samaria, set fire to three vehicles and two buildings in the town, and threw rocks and Molotov cocktails,” the report said.
At 8:06 p.m., the brigade’s commanding officer declared an “emergency procedure” in Jit, and the first military force arrived within the next six minutes.
“The investigation revealed the first force did not manage to fully gauge the situation,” the report said. “They attempted to disperse the rioters and prevent harm to Palestinians, but they needed to act more decisively.”
Within a few more minutes, additional reserve troops and border police arrived “and began to contain the rioters,” the report said.
“The troops acted assertively, risking their lives, containing the rioters and pushing them out of the town using crowd dispersal means and firing into the air,” the report said. Within half an hour, all Israelis had been removed from the town.
During the incident, IDF troops rescued families, helping them to escape burning buildings, and they rendered first aid, the report said.
Border police deployed on the roads prevented additional Israelis, who were trying to join the riot, from reaching the town.
The investigation revealed that several members of the rapid response team from a nearby community, not on active reserve duty but in uniform, came to Jit without authorization. They “acted contrary to the authority defined for members of the rapid response team,” the report said. Two have been dismissed from the team and their weapons confiscated.
Many Israeli communities, particularly those close to borders or on the West Bank, which many Israelis refer to as Judea and Samaria, have such teams meant to respond quickly to terrorist attacks. Most, if not all, of their members are military veterans or reservists.
Three adults and one minor were arrested, and the three adults are still in custody, the report said. The investigation continues, “and additional arrests are planned.”
Major General Avi Bluth, commanding officer of Israel’s Central Command, took responsibility for the incident.
“The responsibility lies first and foremost with me as the head of the system, and I will do everything to improve it.”
“The incident is still ongoing, and it will not be closed until we bring the perpetrators to justice.”
He praised the IDF reservists who “acted while risking their lives to save the lives of Palestinians trapped in houses that caught fire.” He also commended the IDF, police, border police, and Shin Bet for their work.
The report did not provide identifications of those arrested.
Nor did it disclose where the masked rioters came from. Jewish settlers on the West Bank, particularly those living in outposts deeper into predominantly Palestinian areas, have been embroiled in violent incidents with their neighbors. But some of their leaders have denied settlers were involved at Jit. The town is about 15 miles into the West Bank from Israel proper.
Most of Israel’s leadership condemned the incident.
“Those who fight terrorism are the IDF and the security forces, and no one else,” Netanyahu said in a social media post.
Even Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose party represents Jewish residents on the West Bank and advocates for their communities’ protection and expansion, distanced himself from the incident while maintaining, in a social media post, “the rioters tonight in Jit have nothing to do with the settlements and the settlers.
“They are criminals who should be dealt with by the enforcement authorities with the full severity of the law.”
But Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed out of a cabinet meeting on Aug. 22 because Bar’s letter reportedly accused him of explicitly or indirectly encouraging such violence.
Jit residents told reporters the rioters, dressed in black, seemed well organized, breaking into smaller groups with separate missions. Some used iron bars to break windows. Others threw Molotov cocktails. Others threw stones. Others set flammable objects on fire. An armed group covered them, Hassan Arman, whose car was burned, said.
The villager killed, Rashid Sadah, 23, “loved computers,” worked in a store in Nablus, and was planning to get married, his mother said.
An editorial in the Jerusalem Post defended Jewish residents on the West Bank, noting that Shin Bet data had logged 3,570 violent terrorist incidents in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2024 so far. But it also raised concern about “the expanding Jewish terror phenomenon,” epitomized by the attack on Jit by “100 Jewish extremists.”
