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The Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now has called for the dismissal of the Israeli army’s Central Command chief, accusing him of supporting settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, Peace Now demanded the removal of Major General Avi Bluth, who oversees the Central Command responsible for the West Bank, explaining that he acts as a representative of the “Hilltop Youth” settler group. The movement described the group as responsible for attacks on Palestinian civilians and the seizure of their land following forced displacement, in order to establish illegal settlement outposts.

Lior Amichai, the director general of Peace Now, said Bluth was cooperating with settlers and called on Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to dismiss him immediately.

The call followed the broadcast of an investigative report on the programme Zman Emet on Israeli public broadcaster Kan 11, which examined the establishment of new hilltop settlement outposts in the West Bank.

Amichai said Bluth had “effectively turned the Israeli army into an auxiliary force for establishing illegal Jewish terrorist outposts throughout the occupied territories”.

He described the commander as “a representative of the ‘Hilltop Youth’ terrorist group in an IDF uniform”, urging the army chief to “act without delay and terminate Bluth’s command immediately”.

According to the investigation, evidence was uncovered pointing to coordination and cooperation between Bluth and the founders of the settlement outposts.

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.