Far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has often defended Israelis accused of similar crimes, offered a rare condemnation of Sunday's violence. "Attacking security forces, security facilities, and IDF soldiers who are our brothers, our protectors, is a red line, and must be dealt with in full severity. We are brothers," he wrote on X.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid told Israel's Army radio that the riots were carried out by "Jewish terrorists, gangs of criminals, who feel backed by the (governing) coalition."

A hard-line supporter of Jewish settlements, Ben-Gvir was previously convicted in Israel of racist incitement and support for terrorist groups, and has called for the deportation of all Arab citizens from Israel. Though once widely shunned by Israel's politicians, Ben-Gvir's influence has grown and alongside a shift to the right in the country's electorate has further emboldened violence from extremist settlers in the West Bank.

Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed Monday to "eradicate this violence from the root," and implored the extremist settlers to remember that many of the security forces are exhausted reservists serving multiple rounds of duty.

Over the past two years of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Palestinian residents in the West Bank have reported a major increase in Israeli checkpoints and delays across the territory. Israel, meanwhile, says threats from the West Bank against its citizens are on the rise.

Israel captured and occupied the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast War. At least 500,000 Jewish settlers reside in illegal settlements established in the West Bank, with many also living in "stolen" houses of Palestinians. Meanwhile, 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank under open-ended Israeli military rule and prone to continued attacks by the settlers.

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