Herzog warns Netanyahu of 'highly explosive and dangerous reality' amid rising settler violence

Herzog warns Netanyahu of 'highly explosive and dangerous reality' amid rising settler violence

Israeli president Isaac Herzog warned prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu other senior officials of a "highly explosive and dangerous reality" in the West Bank amid increasing settler violence.

"The IDF commanders, the police officers and the Shin Bet personnel present a worrying picture of limited tools and a shortage of manpower," Herzog wrote in the letter sent to Netanyahu, defence minister Israel Katz, the Israeli army chief of staff Eyal Zamir and attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara.

Herzog said that the elections in Israel, the US and the Palestinian Authority - which the latter has since been postponed - alongside the olive harvest season are set to "create a highly explosive and dangerous reality".

"A severe flare-up on the ground is liable to carry severe and far-reaching consequences, both for Israel’s security and its functioning as a sovereign state, and for Israel’s international standing, Diaspora Jewry, the Israeli economy, and more," the Israeli president further warned.

He added that there is a "moral disgrace and the stain on us" when innocent Palestinians are harmed, and stressed that "there is no room for this lawlessness in a sovereign state".