Israeli Press
Police find a weapons cache at an outpost, settlers block the arrest
Graphic: Times of Palestine
Original Reporting
Israeli police who located a cache of weapons and combat equipment at the "Kol Dodi" outpost, beside the settlement of Kochav HaShahar in the occupied West Bank, were attacked during the operation and then surrounded by settlers who prevented an arrest, the Israeli news site Ynet and the news site Walla reported on Monday.
A 16-year-old from Kochav HaShahar is suspected of assaulting the officers on Sunday. Roughly fifty settlers arrived at the scene and stopped police from detaining him, and he left. He was arrested overnight, and his father was arrested with him on suspicion of helping him escape.
Police said the officers secured the weapons after the disturbance. Neither report described what the cache contained or under what authority the outpost stands.
The episode sits on top of the season's numbers. Israeli security figures for the first half of 2026 record 660 settler attacks on Palestinians, up 63 percent from 405 in the preceding six months, with 140 Palestinians wounded and six killed, against 82 wounded and none killed a year earlier.
The same tally counts 45 incidents of settler violence directed at Israeli security forces, a rise of 50 percent, and does not yet include July, when about a hundred further incidents were logged.
An armed group whose weapons the police must recover, and whose neighbours turn out in dozens to stop an arrest, is the daily reality of Palestinian villages within walking distance of that outpost.
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