Berliner Tageszeitung - Israel calls for police to replace military in handling West Bank settlers

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.

Against the backdrop of the blockade, Defence Minister Israel Katz's office announced he had "instructed the IDF 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 the Biblical term for the West Bank.

The military would continue to exercise power over Palestinian residents of the West Bank.

"The IDF'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.

Israeli media reported however that a transfer of enforcement powers would be highly unlikely to go through before national elections scheduled for October 27, which polls show are looking tight.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law, among some three million Palestinians in the territory.

Settlement expansion and construction have soared under Netanyahu's government, alongside violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

- 'So ashamed' -

The settler siege in Qusra has drawn unusually sharp criticism from the United States.

A few dozen activists managed to get supplies to the blockaded families on Friday, after they dropped donations off outside for inspection by the Israeli military.

"We have succeeded in bringing water, food and medicine to the besieged homes in the village of Qusra," said Ofer Cassif, a lawmaker from the far-left Hadash party.

An AFP journalist reported seeing settlers at the site early on Friday, but they appeared to have dispersed from the immediate vicinity by later in the day.

On their march to the blockaded houses, the activists held a Palestinian flag and signs reading "Justice for All" and "Stop the Settlers' Terror".

"I'm so ashamed of what my people do here to the Palestinians," said 72-year-old retired prosecutor Naomi Granot, who was at the scene to deliver supplies.

"I would like us both people to get together, to get an agreement," she told AFP.

"What my people are doing here is just awful. It's unlawful".

An AFP journalist had earlier reported that the settlers had set up a new tent near the blockaded houses on Friday morning but it had been removed by later in the day.

Anton Goodman, the acting director of the NGO Rabbis for Human Rights, said the military had "let settler terrorists go wild in this area, take over houses, injure people, stop their livelihoods, enforce no freedom of movement".

On Thursday, the Israeli military said troops had been deployed in Qusra "to protect the residents and maintain security in the area".

The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, for years a staunch supporter of settlers, on Thursday criticised the siege, saying there was "no excuse for such thuggish behaviour".

"Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting," Huckabee wrote on X.

One of the besieged homes is owned by a US citizen.

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S. Sokolow--BTZ