Police raid extremist settlers after fatal attack

ISRAELI police have begun their biggest operation in years against extremist Jewish settlers whom the government has described as murderers. Nine were arrested and two more thrown into administrative detention without trial.

The raids, on the settlements of Adei Ad and Baladim in the occupied West Bank, come as Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior ministers are increasingly concerned they are losing control of radical settlers.

Last weekend a second Palestinian died after an arson attack on his home near Nablus by suspected militant settlers – his 18-month-old son died in the raid.

His wife and another son remain in critical condition.

The most significant part of the Israeli police action is the decision to use the powers of administrative detention – holding suspects indefinitely without trial – which was previously employed against only Palestinian terrorist suspects. One settler was put into administrative detention last week.

‘‘I promised we would use all the tools at our disposal to apprehend the murderers and deal with them to the fullest extent of the law, and this is what we are doing,’’ Netanyahu said.

The United Nations recorded 109 attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and their property in the first half of the year.

Investigators believe many attacks are the work of a small group of radicals. Security sources say it is difficult to gather evidence against them.

Many have been arrested multiple times and are familiar with police interrogation methods.

Many Israelis want the government to be even tougher.

Isaac Herzog, the Centre-Left opposition leader, has urged Netanyahu to ban Lehava, a Rightwing group that campaigns against Jewish-Arab intermarriage. Its leader said last week that Jewish law required the burning of churches in Israel.

On the hills of the occupied West Bank, furious settlers described the arrests as a witch-hunt against the settler movement.

‘‘The media and the Left

are exploiting these events to continue demonising us,’’ said Ezri Tubi, a resident of Yitzhar, a settlement not far from Douma, an area notorious for its role in West Bank violence. Residents carried out 70 attacks on Palestinians and their land in 2011, according to the UN, about one-sixth of all incidents recorded that year.

Most people in the settlements deny any involvement in the violence and describe it as the work of a small minority. They are angry about the recent arrests, claiming the government failed to stop attacks against Jewish settlers.

That anger could become a serious political problem for Netanyahu, who won re-election in March thanks in part to the settler movement.

A broader crackdown in the West Bank could cost him key settler votes in the next election.