Israel’s defence minister has ordered the military to hand over responsibility for civilian law enforcement to the police in the West Bank, as criticism mounts over the country's failure to end a six-day siege by violent settlers against Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said the decision was made because the military’s role “is to fight Palestinian terrorism” and not “chase the hilltop youth”, a term used to describe those behind much of the increase in settler violence since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition came into power and, more so, since the October 7 attacks. Mr Katz is a staunch defender of settlers.
Transferring responsibilities from the military to the police mirrors a wider push by the government to de facto annex the West Bank by entrenching Israeli law in the area.
Palestinian Vice President Hussein Al Sheikh condemned the transfer of enforcement powers, calling it a “flagrant violation of international law” and a new attempt to “entrench the illegitimate annexation of Palestinian land” in a post on X released on Friday afternoon.
For most of Israel’s occupation, the territory was supposed to be governed by military law, in line with the 1954 Hague Convention and the Fourth Geneva Convention. These prohibit an occupying power, in this case Israel, from exercising sovereign rights over occupied territory. Israel’s police are also under the control of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a convicted criminal and radical settler himself.
The announcement comes while residents of Qusra remain under siege. The military said it viewed the issue with concern, and senior officials were arriving to assess the situation. The military has confiscated some material belonging to the attacking settlers, who continue to return when the army withdraws. Some soldiers have been filmed praying with the settlers.
The siege, which those affected say has led to food shortages and terrorised children, prompted rare criticism from staunch Israel ally US Ambassador Mike Huckabee. He called the perpetrators “Israeli terrorists” on Thursday.
Mr Huckabee later came out in support of the wider settlement project, saying that settlers “are not the problem” in the West Bank, rather a “very small minority who do great damage to Palestinian families and to Israel”. He then praised Yisrael Gantz, a settler leader who supports applying Israeli law in the West Bank.
Criticism is also mounting inside Israel over the military’s failure to break the siege. Far-left politician Ofer Cassif said forces stopped him from getting to Qusra on Friday and that besieged families were being denied essential supplies and medicine.
A statement from his party, Hadash-Ta’al, said he later reached the families. “This is exactly what apartheid looks like. This is exactly what occupation looks like,” the statement added.
Itay Blumenthal, military correspondent for Israeli national broadcaster Kan, posted on X on Friday that the situation was “truly unbelievable”.
He added that “Jewish rioters” re-established a tent in “the exact same spot” as they had been before “despite the fact that the [military] deployed an additional battalion to the village and the Border Guard is also reinforcing the area”.
