The new electronic bracelets have so far been ineffective
The IDF admitted on Monday that it failed to reduce the amount of Jewish extremist violence against West Bank Palestinians in 2025.
In 2025, the number of “nationalist” Jewish incidents, a term used by the IDF to refer to both violent attacks and vandalism targeting Palestinian property, increased from 682 incidents in 2024 to 867.
Although the IDF pointed out that the number of incidents was still lower than the 1,045 in 2023 and 922 in 2022, it was still a far cry from the 446 in 2021, 353 in 2020, and 339 in 2019.
Beyond the raw numbers, the IDF also acknowledged that the number of more serious, dangerous incidents, and especially mass attacks, as opposed to attacks by one or two individuals, has increased.
Currently, the IDF defines individual lethal Jewish attacks on Palestinians as Jewish terror.
Israeli security forces clash with Jewish settlers during the evacuation of illegal structures in Tzur Misgavi, an outpost of Gush Etzion in the West Bank, November 17, 2025 (Credit: REUTERS/Nama STERN)
However, it still does not define groups of Jews involved in group attacks as terrorist groups because they are not as organized as Palestinian terrorist groups, it says.
The IDF notes an increase in Jewish extremist attacks on West Bank Palestinians
Critics say the different terminology is influenced by the right-wing politics of the existing coalition, Bluth or other defense officials.
More recently, Bluth has referred to many Jewish extremists as anarchists.
Breaking down who the attackers were, the Shin Bet identified 70 Jews as the worst offenders. Bluth issued 39 restraining orders against more than half of these individuals.
Beyond those 70, there are about 250 others who are involved in Jewish nationalist incidents, albeit somewhat less extreme, the IDF said.
About half of the Jewish extremists, the IDF noted, come from the West Bank and the other half from inside the Green Line, including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ra’anana, and other places.
Despite that roughly 50/50% split, the IDF will admit that most Jewish extremists now spend most of their time in the West Bank, even though their original homes and parents are inside the Green Line.
IDF sources said many of them have fled their homes and do not care about any authority figures, even right-wing religious Zionist rabbis.
For example, in some cases, Jewish extremists have attacked Palestinians or IDF commanders on Saturday despite biblical religious prohibitions to use fire on them.Shabbat.
Some Jewish extremists are as young as 12 years old, and most of them are in their teens or early 20s, with one of the oldest currently 26 years old.
The worst month of the year for Jewish extremist violence was January, with 116 incidents, followed by May and June, both around 90, and then October and November with 100 and 87 incidents respectively.
A continuing problem, according to IDF sources, is that Defense Minister Israel Katz released seven of the worst criminals from administrative detention a year ago and then canceled administrative detention for Jews.
This comes at a time when more than 3,500 Palestinians are under administrative detention.
Even considering how much greater and more deadly Palestinian terrorism is than radical Jewish violence, critics say there is no basis to nullify administrative detention of Jews if the majority of IDF and Shin Bet positions for 2024-2025 would threaten national security.
Although the restraining order has had some effect, IDF sources said that in practice, there are orders and ways for Jewish extremists to evade law enforcement in order to detect their activities.
Recently, two Jewish extremists were fitted with electronic bracelets to track them and prevent them from entering the West Bank, especially when one of them was under house arrest.
However, the man under house arrest managed to travel to Eilat against Bluth’s orders, as no one was able to stop him in time as there were additional measures in place to prevent him from traveling to the West Bank.
In addition, many Israeli civil courts have not fully recognized the legality of IDF military orders placed on some of these Jewish extremist Israeli citizens.
This has limited the effectiveness of their enforcement and the deterrent effect of restraining orders or electronic bracelets on individuals.
Likewise, a new law was passed in the West Bank making it illegal for citizens to wear face masks. The concept was to make it easier to identify criminals or empower law enforcement to arrest them for concealing their identity, if a person had not been arrested for nationalistic crimes against Palestinians.
But this initiative has again had limited effectiveness due to lack of enforcement by Israeli civilian courts.
After three years of criticism from the Shin Bet and the IDF due to pressure from National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, there has been ongoing debate over whether West Bank police have been making a comeback in recent months to arrest and prosecute more Jewish violent extremists.
In addition to Jewish extremist violence, the IDF has bulldozed dozens of illegal outposts established by Jewish West Bank settlers.
However, dozens more have been officially legitimized by Betzel Smotrich in his ability to control that policy within the Ministry of Defense.
While under former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, there was some pushback on such issues, Katz has given Smotrich the full green light.
Those moves have led to international criticism, including from the Trump administration.
It was recently reported that some of the new checkpoints could hamper any future efforts to implement Trump’s 2020 plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state, part of the West Bank legislation in the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.
