IDF Central Command chief reportedly told settlers not to alert other officers before Jericho entry

IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth was notified in advance of a plan by Israeli settlers to illegally enter eight homes on the outskirts of the Palestinian city of Jericho, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday, after the army claimed that the action by settlers was not coordinated.

Citing security sources familiar with the matter, the Haaretz daily said Bluth even met with the settlers in advance of their illicit entry into Jericho on Wednesday and instructed them not to tip off top officers under his command until they had moved into the Palestinian homes.

Bluth also reportedly spoke to organizers of the settler action in Jericho and wished them luck on the eve of their illegal entry.

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Responding to the report, the IDF said that the allegations against Bluth were false, without elaborating.

The settlers have claimed to have legally purchased the homes, but the Palestinian neighborhood in question is located on state land, so there is no private owner from whom the homes could have been acquired.

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The settler entry has forced the Israel Defense Forces to divert three platoons in order to protect the settlers.

In addition to Bluth, Channel 16 reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz were also tipped off ahead of time, but did not act to stop the settlers.

Settlements Minister Orit Strock has visited the squatting settlers since they moved into the homes.

Rights groups reported that some of the Palestinians living in the neighborhood have fled due to fear of violence from the invading settlers.

“There is a sense that something is about to happen and that someone is trying to heat up the situation on the ground,” a senior IDF official told Haaretz.

The newspaper separately reported that Bluth signed off on an order turning an area near the West Bank village of Burin into a closed military zone to prevent former prime minister Ehud Olmert from visiting the site where Palestinians have been the target of repeated settler attacks.

Olmert was supposed to be part of a delegation of senior former Israeli officials visiting the central West Bank area in the coming days.

His presence would have required protection from the Shin Bet internal security agency.

Earlier Friday, Olmert accused Bluth of “effectively aiding Jewish terrorism,” adding that the Central Command chief’s actions “stand in complete contradiction to his professional obligations and his status as the sovereign authority of the State of Israel in the territories.”

“For dozens of years I have never taken such a harsh personal stance against a general in the army, but I can no longer sit silently, I can’t close my eyes, I can’t ignore what I see with my eyes,” Olmert told Kan public radio.

The IDF responded by rejecting Olmert’s claims, saying that to allege Bluth provides “aid to terror is grave, impermissible and detached from reality,” the military said in a statement.

Settler violence has surged in recent months, with daily attacks and harassment, and few perpetrators charged or convicted. The attacks, some of which have targeted diplomats or press, have sparked widespread international backlash.

Early Saturday, Israeli settlers were filmed beating a Palestinian man during an overnight attack on a hamlet in the Masafer Yatta region of the southern West Bank.

The man seen in the video being beaten lost consciousness, according to Palestinian media.

There were no reports of any arrests and the IDF did not immediately comment.

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