Madama, Palestine - A far-right Israeli lawmaker took a sledgehammer to a Palestinian memorial in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday while under military escort, a move that was later condemned both by the army and Israeli politicians.

Footage circulating online showed Zvi Sukkot, who is also a settler, smashing a monument commemorating "martyrs" in the Palestinian village of Madama in the northern West Bank, while soldiers stood nearby.

"A few days ago, I demanded that the military take action to remove the monuments commemorating terrorists in the murderers' villages of Madama and Burin. Unfortunately, they remained in place. So I went there myself and took action to remove them," Sukkot posted on Facebook, along with a video of the act.

When contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said Sukkot and his aides had conducted a "tour" of the area "with security provided by IDF soldiers who had been diverted from their operational activities for this purpose."

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"Contrary to the agreed-upon coordination, the participants acted deceptively and manipulatively, without authorization, departing entirely from the approved framework, and began demolishing one of the monuments in Madama," it added.

It said soldiers reported the incident to their commanders, who told them to stop the activity and "the participants were quickly escorted out of the village."

The military said it viewed Sukkot's actions "with the utmost severity," adding they "constituted a misuse of the protection provided by security forces to act entirely outside the scope of the approved framework."

The filmed act took place as Israel prepares for elections on October 27, although even some fellow right-wing lawmakers took their distance.

"Zvi Sukkot – like any other Knesset member – is not the sovereign in the territories of Judea and Samaria," Foreign Minister Gideon Saar posted on X, using the Biblical term for the West Bank.

Gadi Eisenkot, who has emerged as the principal challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in upcoming elections, slammed the act.

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"Zvi Sukkot's behavior is a disgrace to anyone who presumes to represent the public and be a leader," he wrote on X.

"Netanyahu... is allowing anarchists like Zvi Sukkot and his ilk to do as they please, endangering security in the settlements and damaging Israel's standing in the world," he added.

Rami Nassar, the head of Madama's village council, told AFP the memorial at the center of the village included the names of those killed in a 1968 battle, the first and second intifadas, and up until the present day.

Israeli violence in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, has surged since the start of the Gaza assault in October 2023. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank since that time.