Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has ordered the military to prepare a plan transferring civilian law enforcement in the occupied West Bank to the Israeli police. The order does not itself complete the transfer; the Defence Ministry said the police would establish a dedicated force for these matters.
Palestinian officials and analysts warn that moving policing from the military to a civilian force could deepen what they describe as de facto annexation, settler violence and separate legal systems in the territory.
Why the policing change was ordered
The decision followed criticism of the army’s handling of Israeli settlers who besieged a Palestinian home in the village of Qusra, according to the source material. Katz said the army’s role was to combat what he called Palestinian terrorism rather than pursue “hilltop youth”.
Under the planned arrangement, civilian matters involving Israeli settlers in the West Bank would be handled by a dedicated police force rather than the military. The material does not specify when the force would begin operating or how its jurisdiction would be implemented.
Related coverage: 23 Palestinians arrested amid West Bank escalation.
How Palestinian leaders and analysts view it
Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh condemned the order as an attempt to impose Israeli law and sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Hamas called it a dangerous step toward de facto annexation and said it would give greater protection to escalating settler attacks.
Analysts Mohanad Mustafa and Nihad Abu Ghosh said the structural shift could change the legal and security reality of the territory. Mustafa argued that treating the West Bank through civilian enforcement would amount to annexation, while Abu Ghosh said settler groups could function as an armed extension of the state.
Warnings about displacement and international action
Researchers Shadi al-Shurafa and Adel Shadid described the consequences in terms of segregation, displacement and a further deterioration of the territory’s status. Al-Shurafa said Palestinians could be confined to isolated areas, while Shadid said the situation had moved beyond a debate over annexation toward a reality that could pressure Palestinians to leave.
Former United Nations official Andrew Whitley described the planned transfer as illegal and called for concrete international measures, including sanctions. The source material also records criticism of the United States for what analysts described as enabling the broader policy, while noting that recent US condemnations of settler violence had been dismissed by one analyst as insufficient.
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