Katz's condemnation came months after a spike in such attacks, six days after a new mass attack last week, and after yet another mass attack earlier Monday.

Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday finally condemned Jewish extremist violence against Palestinians, months after a spike in such attacks, six days after a new mass attack last week, and after yet another mass attack earlier Monday.

Katz is among the last of the relevant government authorities to make a statement on the issue after an extended period of silence, despite making regular statements on many other national security issues.

While Katz condemned their attacks, his statement was notably focused on their attacks on IDF soldiers who were trying to prevent their attacks on Palestinians.

The defense minister did not actually mention the word "Palestinian" or condemn such attacks per se, other than to criticize the general idea of anyone taking the law into their own hands.

Katz did specifically give his backing to IDF Central Commander Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth is fighting Jewish extremists, who the defense minister said are a small group of "anarchists" who are giving a bad name to what he said was largely the law-abiding Jewish settler public.

Palestinian media videos of the alleged raid. (Credit: According to Section 27A of the Israeli Copyright Law.)
While Katz said he would act to support Bluth, he said nothing about reinstating administrative detention for Jewish extremists, which he suspended in January of this year, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supporting the practice for 16 of his 17 years as prime minister.

The vast majority of top IDF and Shin Bet officials opposed Katz's suspension of administrative detention for Jewish extremists and have said it is a significant cause of the expansion of attacks against Palestinians.

Katz plan to handle Jewish extremist violence

On June 3, Katz appointed Col. (res.) Avichai Tenami was appointed as the special project manager to handle and try to reduce Jewish West Bank hilltop youth violence through dialogue.

Tenami is an educator and a former commander and soldier in the elite unit Sayeret Matkal, and Katz hoped that Tenami's work would replace the need for administrative detention.

However, the mass violence immediately after Tenami's appointment and continuing through now has indicated that dropping administrative detention has unleashed even worse Jewish extremist violence.

Also, the fact that administrative detention was repealed in January and Tenami was only appointed five months later seemed to make it clear that his new initiative was a low priority.

Katz on Monday said that he would pass new resources and budgets for Tenami to address the issue in the coming weeks, but if those methods only involve dialogue and not the ability to crack down on the most violent of the Jewish extremists, top defense officials are doubtful that it will change the current picture.

In addition, top defense officials have slammed National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for ordering the police to reduce their enforcement against such Jewish extremists, another issue that Katz did not address.