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 - 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".