Israeli settlers build new illegal outpost near West Bank village where soldiers assaulted, detained CNN crew

By Abeer Salman, Zeena Saifi, Jeremy Diamond, CNN

(CNN) — Dozens of Israeli settlers returned to the West Bank village of Tayasir on Wednesday to build a new illegal settler outpost on its outskirts, days after a separate one was dismantled following a CNN report covering its establishment.

Local residents and eyewitnesses told CNN settlers arrived in the morning with a flock of sheep loaded onto the back of an army vehicle. Videos sent to CNN show Israeli soldiers and military jeeps providing protection to the settlers as they erect new tents.

An Israeli attorney representing a Palestinian Bedouin community that was displaced in the area also confirmed the military’s presence.

“The outpost was accompanied by military vehicles,” Dr. Netta Amar-Shiff told CNN. “It was built with the direct support and guard of the military.”

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.

Five days earlier, settlers stormed the village of Tayasir, beating multiple residents and establishing an illegal outpost in the village. CNN witnessed Israeli troops standing idly by the new outpost before detaining multiple Palestinians and the CNN crew instead.

Tayasir residents said Israeli forces dismantled the outpost the next day, but that it was erected again by settlers in another location in the village. On Wednesday, they moved it to a third location on the outskirts of Tayasir, in the village of Al-Aqabah.

The distinction in location is significant. The entire West Bank is under Israeli military occupation, but the Oslo Accords divided the land into three administrative zones.

The first outposts were in what is known as Area A; areas under Palestinian civil and security control. The latest outpost is now located in Area C, which is under Israeli civil and security control, although the outpost remains illegal under both Israeli and international law.

In February, the Israeli government advanced the registration of Area C – about 60% of the territory – as state land, in a move that Palestinians have decried as “de facto annexation.”

At the time, far-right Finance Minister Bezalael Smotrich said the land registry would continue “the settlement and governance revolution across all parts of our land.”

Daily threats

Earlier on Tuesday, settlers mounted another attack where at least four Palestinians were injured, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. Eyewitnesses said Israeli settlers set fire to homes, farming sheds and vehicles.

Videos obtained by CNN show several cars and sheds engulfed in flames, with a thick plume of black smoke billowing and filling the air. One video of the village hills shows several vehicles and tents in flames with rising columns of dark smoke. Images of the aftermath also show cars and vehicles charred and burned.

According to community leader and eyewitness Amer Dabak, the Israeli military responded to the incident by arriving in Tayasir and preventing the fire brigade, ambulances and residents from reaching the area.

“They prevented residents from returning to their homes but allowed the settlers to do everything at their leisure,” he added.

CNN’s report of the initial settler attack generated significant attention in Israeli media and ignited a debate in Israeli society. The Israeli military chief of staff has since suspended the relevant battalion from operational activity, dismissed from military service one soldier who spoke of “revenge” against Palestinians and reprimanded several commanders.

But several Israeli officials, including far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, condemned the suspension, and 31 right-wing lawmakers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition wrote a letter Tuesday, demanding the battalion be redeployed.

“The dismissal of an entire battalion from active duty, even if only in a temporary manner due to an article on CNN, undermines the trust required among the military system and among the reservists at a time when we need them more than ever,” the lawmakers wrote.

The military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir responded to the letter on Wednesday, saying the decision was not made due to influence from “television crews”,” but rather “out of responsibility for military norms.”

“My goal, together with the commanders, is to strengthen the battalion’s capability in the near future and to better prepare it for its challenges. That is what I instructed, and that is what was done,” he said, emphasizing that the battalion would return to operational duties after training.

However, there is little accountability for Israeli soldiers’ role in supporting settlers, and a lack of concrete action against rampant Israeli settler violence.

No one has been arrested for the brutal beating of 75-year-old Abdullah Daraghmeh, who was attacked in his home during the settlers’ early morning raid last week.

Daraghmeh’s wife Amna suffered a heart attack and died on Tuesday, according to their son Sami, who said she had been mentally and physically affected by the attack on her husband.

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