Israeli officials have expressed shock and outrage at the reports of a clash between Israeli soldiers and civilians in the Binyamin region on Friday night. According to the reports, Israeli civilians committed acts of vandalism against IDF vehicles and assaulted soldiers. The soldiers reportedly opened fire on the civilians with both live rounds and crowd control munitions.
President Isaac Herzog condemned the civilians involved. "The assault on IDF soldiers and security forces is a serious and dangerous act. There is no justification for violence against those who dedicate their lives to the defense of the state's security. I thank the IDF forces, and the reserve soldiers under the command of the battalion commander, who have served hundreds of days of reserve duty since the outbreak of the war, and look forward to a comprehensive investigation that will bring to justice anyone who has violated the law."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did likewise: "I sharply condemn the acts of rioting that occurred in the Binyamin area, where IDF soldiers were attacked. The State of Israel is a state of law and no one should take the law into their own hands. The events must be investigated to the end and the law enforced with all who broke the law and acted against our soldiers", he said in a statement. Netanyahu noted that this is a "Small minority, which does not represent the vast majority of the settlement people, who uphold the law and serve in the IDF and security forces."
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich - whose additional portfolio in the Defense Ministry includes the Binyamin Region - stated "The incident on Friday night in Binyamin will be investigated and clarified. In the meantime, live fire by the IDF against Jews is a forbidden and dangerous limit that deserves a thorough investigation and personal conclusions."
"The IDF and the settlers are one body. Whoever raises his hand against IDF soldiers is fighting against the settlements and not for them. And yet - live fire on Jews is forbidden and dangerous."
"The incident must be investigated fully, the lessons must be learned, and the culprits must be brought to justice."
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel tweeted "Anyone who raises a hand against a soldier of the IDF or throws stones at him or tries to run him down is an abomination and is not worthy of any defense."
MK Amit Halevi (Likud) said "A 14-year-old Jewish boy was shot - apparently by live fire - by an IDF soldier on Friday night. I am not entering into the details of the event, there are different versions, and I am also not entering into a discussion on the settlement on the hills of Judea and Samaria where this event began."
"One thing I know, as someone who hears time and again in the Foreign and Security Committee IDF representatives explaining to us the supposedly moral value of the instructions for opening fire against the enemy, is that until there is certainty of danger to the lives of our soldiers they are not allowed to open live fire directed at the body, including our bitterest enemies. The IDF Spokesman's reactions on Friday night and the backing to the soldiers from all directions somehow missed this, and it's the main thing. I approached tonight the Subcommittee Chairman in the Foreign and Security Committee MK Zvi Succot (Religious Zionist Party), in order to hold an urgent hearing on the investigation of this event. It should not be passed over and it won't be", he said.
Succot responded to the incident as well: "No shooting Jews, no evictions on Shabbat, and certainly not with the use of weapons! This is a very serious incident that must be investigated thoroughly and quickly, including the drawing of conclusions. And of course - under no circumstances are IDF soldiers to be harmed!"
MK Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) posted on Saturday night that she had received videos of the incident and claimed that the IDF 'did not know who the enemy was anymore.'