US officials reportedly upset at increasing violence in Judea and Samaria, JD Vance denies claim he chastised PM Netanyahu

Senior U.S. officials have expressed concern to the Israeli government over a reported rise in violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, according to a report by Israel Hayom.

The report, which cited unnamed sources, said that over the past week, American officials conveyed messages to their Israeli counterparts, criticizing the violence and questioning the bilateral partnership.

“Israel is behaving like a backward country,” the report stated, while accusing the Israeli coalition government of allowing the “chaos in Judea and Samaria to continue” amid the war. 

Additionally, the report said that U.S. Vice President JD Vance raised the issue directly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their phone call on Monday evening, which was denied by Vance's press secretary, Taylor Van Kirk.

Other Israeli media also reported that Vance spoke with Netanyahu about the war in Iran, noting that it was their second conversation in recent days, following a call on Saturday.

However, a report in Israel Hayom said that "the tone escalated" between Vance and Netanyahu, citing not a source but "rumor." The report added that frustrations with this issue have been expressed by "nearly every senior American official to every Israeli they were in contact with."

Following a post on 𝕏 highlighting this report by Elizabeth Tsurkov, the Israeli researcher who was kidnapped by an Islamist terror group in Iraq, Van Kirk responded, “This story is completely false. The Vice President’s discussions over the last week with the Prime Minister have been solely focused on Operation Epic Fury.” 

“The subject of this article was not even discussed,” he emphasized. 

This story is completely false. The Vice President’s discussions over the last week with the Prime Minister have been solely focused on Operation Epic Fury. The subject of this article was not even discussed. https://t.co/3AzylS3pdY

— Taylor Van Kirk (@VPPressSec) March 24, 2026

While there has been a notable increase in violent incidents between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in recent weeks, the U.S. government has issued no formal statements on the issue, not even through Ambassador Mike Huckabee, who, despite his strong support for Jewish settlement in the contested territories, has also called out incidents of violence in the past. 

The Israel Hayom article comes after renewed reporting on the violence in Israeli media following the death of a Jewish settler in a possible traffic accident over the weekend. The victim’s family says a Palestinian driver ran Yehuda Sherman off the road while he and his brother were driving around their property, inspecting the property on their illegal settlement near Nablus in Samaria. 

Following his death, groups of settler youths rioted in at least five Palestinian communities, carrying out acts of arson and vandalism. Israel Police and the IDF said they are investigating the incident, while a report in Israel's Kan News raised questions about the account given by the surviving brother.

In a video released by Kan, Sherman is seen being carried on a stretcher by Palestinian Red Crescent responders from beside the driver’s side of the pickup truck that his brother, Daniel, said struck them. No Arab driver is visible at the scene.

תיעוד בלעדי שפרסמנו הערב במהדורה - הרכב הפוגע שהידרדר והסיוע הפלסטיני בפינוי: הרגעים הראשונים לאחר אירוע הדריסה בשומרון שנחשד כפיגוע, בו נהרג יהודה שרמן ז״ל
כתבה שהכנתי עם @HGoldich pic.twitter.com/vF2hvpvvBB

— Anastasia Stukanov (@anastasia___stu) March 23, 2026

The IDF has not released any details about the incident. 

Despite the presence of around 100 Jewish rioters in the incidents following Sherman’s death, Israeli authorities only arrested five people. 

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir has complained about the increase in Jewish violence in Judea and Samaria, saying the nationalistic attacks by Jews “create extraordinary strategic damage to the IDF’s efforts.”