Activist speaks with ‘Israeli’ soldiers as he accompanies Palestinian landowners to their property, which is at risk of being confiscated by ‘Israeli’ settlers.
‘Israel’ calls for police to replace military in handling West Bank settlers
Note: AI technology was used to generate this article’s audio.
‘Israel's’ defence minister called on Friday for the police to take over law enforcement in the occupied West Bank from the military, which has come under fire from the right for trying to remove settlers harassing Palestinians.
The measure, if implemented, would be a step towards ‘Israeli’ annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory -- something several ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government openly call for.
The announcement comes almost a week into a siege by ‘Israeli’ settlers who have blockaded Palestinians inside their homes in the northern West Bank, repeatedly returning despite attempts by the military to remove them.
Palestinian residents of three houses in Qusra near Nablus say they have been effectively cut off from food and other supplies since the siege began on Sunday.
As international criticism grew, Defence Minister Israel Katz's office announced he had instructed the military to "prepare a plan to transfer all enforcement powers regarding civil matters among Israeli communities and population in Judea and Samaria to the Israel Police," using their term for the West Bank.
The military would continue to exercise power over the three million Palestinians of the West Bank, where some 500,000 ‘Israelis’ have also settled since Israel seized the territory in 1967.
The army's "role is to fight Palestinian terrorism, focus on defending borders and communities against threats... and not chase boys on the hilltops," Katz said, referring to the Hilltop Youth -- a settler group regularly accused of violence towards Palestinians.
"The police will prepare and establish an appropriate force to handle civil matters, and will be granted all necessary powers and budgets," the statement said.
Hebrew media reported, however, that a transfer of enforcement powers would be highly unlikely to go through before October 27 elections, in which polls show a close contest for Netanyahu.
Settlement construction has soared under Netanyahu's government, alongside violence against Palestinians by ‘Israeli’ settlers since the events of October 7, 2023.
Near Hebron, two people were treated Friday for gunshot wounds including one to the head after a settler attack, while a 16-year-old boy was taken to hospital for a gunshot wound in Bethlehem, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
International pressure
US ambassador to ‘Israel’ Mike Huckabee, for years a staunch supporter of settlers, on Thursday called the violence "disgusting" and "thuggish behaviour".
A US citizen owns one of the besieged homes.
France's foreign ministry on Friday condemned the siege "in the strongest possible terms" and called on ‘Israel’ to arrest those responsible.
Earlier footage had appeared to show ‘Israeli’ troops praying alongside the settlers.
The army vowed to punish complicit soldiers, with Huckabee saying ‘Israel’ took action after a US request.
"When a gang of hooligans wreaks havoc with gratuitous violence, diverting energy from Israel's own military and law enforcement while claiming that it is for the sake of the land, that is a distortion, even a sacrilege," Tel Aviv’s ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, himself a settler, said Friday
