Lebanese President to Visit Rome for Talks on UN Force’s Future, Says Official

Despite being touted as the Middle East's most powerful military, Israeli troops have been unable to remove a small group of settlers from the occupied West Bank for more than a week. The settlers have been besieging Palestinians inside their homes in Qusra, near Nablus, blocking supplies and drawing international and domestic condemnation.

Experts suggest the military's inertia stems from government backing for the settlement movement and the growing influence of settler ideology within the army's ranks. Although troops were deployed and the U.S. requested action, little has been done beyond condemnatory statements and the detention of one Israeli settler. Videos show soldiers praying with settlers, prompting vows of disciplinary action, yet settlers later returned to the site, interacting with Israeli forces.

Nimrod Novik, a senior advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, stated that the government's support for "extremist settlers" places the military in an "impossible situation." He explained that the army is forced to choose between its professional duty, which would involve harsh measures against violent settlers, and adhering to government policy that provides settlers with political backing and resources, resulting in "paralysis."

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The infrastructure of the occupation is built in a way that for a soldier, for us, it's almost impossible to enforce the law on violent settlers and very easy to do whatever we want on Palestinians.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, with over 500,000 Israelis now residing in settlements considered illegal under international law. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government has overseen a historic high in settlement construction, with some ministers openly advocating for annexation. Settler violence against Palestinians has persisted for years with little accountability, but recent months have seen a dramatic increase in attacks.

Nadav Weiman, head of the advocacy group Breaking the Silence, noted that the occupation's infrastructure makes it "almost impossible" for soldiers to enforce the law on violent settlers while being very easy to act against Palestinians. He added that rules of engagement for dealing with settlers are rarely explained to soldiers.

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The military is "forced to choose between operating on the basis of its professional judgement and duty, which calls for applying harsh measures against violent settlers, or... adhere to government policy, which provides those terrorists with political backwind as well as resources," he told AFP. "The result is paralysis with rare exceptions due either to the severity of the crimes or US intervention."