Israel plans to transfer authority over West Bank settlers to the police
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has instructed the military to draw up a plan to transfer law enforcement authority over Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank to the police. This was reported by The Guardian World. The initiative was announced amid domestic and international criticism over the Israeli army’s inability or unwillingness to remove a group that had surrounded three Palestinian families in the village of Qusra.
Palestinian Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh called the plan a “flagrant violation of international law” and a step toward full Israeli annexation. He called on the international community to ensure compliance with international law and to stop what he described as the consolidation of the illegal annexation of Palestinian lands.
Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard stated that the transfer of law enforcement powers to the police could be a significant step toward formal annexation. According to him, the military can delegate the performance of functions but cannot relinquish responsibility for the application of the law. At the same time, he noted that Israel could expand police powers in the West Bank within the framework of the current occupation model, and the lack of details in Katz’s statement may indicate the political nature of the announcement.
The plan was presented on the sixth day of the siege in Kusra. According to the publication, General Avi Blut, commander of Israeli forces in the West Bank, visited the village for the second time. Two days earlier, he had informed the Palestinians that the army would withdraw the settlers, but the soldiers backed down from the confrontation with the group. Instead, the military forced one of the Palestinian families to leave their home, explaining that the house was needed as a base for the operation.
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One of the besieged houses belongs to a U.S. citizen. U.S. Ambassador Mike Hakabi called the Israelis who surrounded the house terrorists and stated that he had asked the Israeli police and army to take measures to remove them.
On August 14, 2026, armed Israelis opened fire on a group of Israeli and Palestinian activists in Beit Sahour near Jerusalem, the publication reported. The activists were attempting to peacefully reclaim Palestinian land seized by settlers. Mia Biran, a representative of the Combatants for Peace movement, said that one of the gunmen fired shots into the air and pointed his weapon at the group. According to her, a military jeep was nearby, but the soldiers did not intervene.
According to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, since October 2023, Israel has forcibly evicted 64 Palestinian communities in their entirety and parts of 15 others; this has affected nearly 5,000 people.
