Palestine weekly wrap: Israeli security agencies sound alarm on settlers

Key Points:

• Senior Israeli security officials, including Major-General Avi Bluth and former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, issued rare and strong warnings about escalating settler violence in the West Bank, fearing it could trigger a Palestinian uprising and expressing shame over settler actions.
• Despite these warnings, settler violence and illegal outpost expansions continued, with attacks on Palestinian villages, road blockades, and land seizures reported across the West Bank, alongside Israeli military raids resulting in Palestinian casualties.
• Israeli forces demolished Palestinian homes and infrastructure, while a military reservist from a settler outpost fired on Palestinian homes; meanwhile, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich withheld Palestinian Authority funds, worsening the PA’s financial crisis despite advice to release them to reduce tensions.
• The Israeli navy intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters near Greece, detaining around 175 activists attempting to breach the Gaza naval blockade, with Israel claiming the operation was peaceful and lawful.
• In Gaza, Israeli strikes continued causing civilian casualties and worsening humanitarian conditions, with critical shortages in medical supplies and infrastructure; talks between Israel and Hamas remain stalled amid Israeli military pressure to renew the war and Hamas’s insistence on addressing disarmament within a broader political framework.