In a rare public admission, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has acknowledged that the Israeli army kills Palestinians on a daily basis in the occupied West Bank, and that extremist settler violence is carried out with the full backing of the Israeli government.

Speaking to Channel 13, Olmert stated plainly: “Soldiers kill Palestinians daily in the West Bank, and the Hilltop Youth, those settler extremists, commit war crimes.” He added, “They are not a fringe minority. That claim is false. They have support, without it, they wouldn't be able to act.”

Olmert’s remarks come as attacks by both Israeli forces and settlers have intensified across the West Bank since the beginning of the war on Gaza in October 2023. Palestinian communities have faced near-daily raids, home demolitions, arbitrary arrests, and brutal assaults by settlers, often under the watch, or protection, of Israeli soldiers. Most victims have been women and children.

Human rights groups, both local and international, have long warned of what they call “systematic and coordinated violence” against Palestinians in the West Bank, carried out in violation of international law. Olmert’s admission, they say, confirms long-standing reports of institutional complicity in crimes ranging from extrajudicial killings to forced displacement.

Palestinian organisations have renewed calls for international accountability mechanisms, urging the global community not to ignore testimony coming directly from within Israel’s own political elite. “This is not a case of rogue elements,” one statement read. “It is a state-backed project of dispossession and erasure.”