Katz’s covert plan for full annexation of West Bank

TEHRAN - Israel Katz, the so-called Israeli defense minister, announced on Friday that he had instructed the military to draft a plan to transfer enforcement powers for civilian matters in the occupied West Bank from the army to the police, a move that is viewed as a full annexation of the West Bank.

Katz’s move comes as Israeli police fall under the National Security Ministry headed by far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a leading advocate of settlement expansion and Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian factions and officials and even Israeli human peace activists and politicians have condemned the measure, describing it as another step toward de facto annexation.

Palestine’s Vice-President, Hussein al-Sheikh, said this is a “flagrant violation of international law” and step towards full annexation and called for international intervention to enforce international law and stop a move that would “entrench the illegitimate annexation of Palestinian land”.

The announcement comes amid a series of Israeli measures expanding settlements and changing administrative arrangements governing the occupied territory.

The United Nations has documented more than 1,430 settler attacks since the beginning of 2026, affecting approximately 260 Palestinian communities.

Katz unveiled the plan as a settler siege in the Palestinian village of Qusra entered its sixth day.

Michael Sfard, a leading Israeli human rights lawyer, said a transfer of law enforcement powers could constitute a major step towards formal annexation.

“If they want to create a normative legal framework that absolves the army from responsibility and transfers it to police, that would be another brick, a very major one, of annexation,” Sfard stated.

Katz is justifying his decision that the army has failed to counter militants besieging Palestinian families, a claim that Sfard described as “cowardly”.

Katz’s words cannot deceive anybody. The point is that the army intentionally does not want to deal with the violent settlers who are trying Palestinians from their homes.

Since the ethnic cleansing by the army is more scandalous for Israel, Katz and fellow cabinet members want this malicious plot is done by police.

To complete this hidden and vicious plan through police’s brutality under the rule of Ben Gvir meets the goals of the bloodthirsty regime of Benjamin Netanyahu.

One should not be surprised by such decisions as the election set for October is approaching.

For example, on Thursday Katz celebrated the re-establishment of a settlement evacuated by Israel in 2005, under then-prime minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan.

“Here, this is the land of Israel. Here, we are staying forever,” Katz claimed at the ceremony in Ganim, where two dozen prefabricated homes have already been installed, and the hillside is being levelled to make space for more.

On the road that leads to the settlement the army had levelled Palestinian property and used piles of rubble to block access roads for Palestinian communities.

The world should also wait for more mischievous and bloody acts in Lebanon and even Syria with the approaching elections in Israel.

On Friday the commander of Israeli forces for the occupied West Bank, Gen Avi Bluth, made a second visit to Qusra. Two days earlier he told Palestinians the army would remove the settlers, but soldiers retreated from confrontation with the group. Instead, they forced one of the Palestinian families out of their home, claiming they needed it as a base for the unsuccessful military operation against the settlers.

Gilad Kariv, a member of the Knesset for the Democrats, has condemned Katz’s directive and said that it conflicts with international law. He has also said this directive is an “Iron Dome for protecting Jewish terrorism in the West Bank.”

State and settler violence has driven a surge in displacement of Palestinian communities in the past three years.

Since October 2023, Israel has forcibly displaced 64 entire Palestinian communities and parts of 15 additional communities, affecting nearly 5,000 people, according to data from Israeli rights group B’tselem.

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, described Katz’s decision as the “actual beginning of the annexation of the occupied West Bank.”

Barghouti said transferring enforcement powers would reduce the military’s authority over settlers and place them more directly under Ben-Gvir’s ministry.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad similarly described the decision as an annexation measure, saying it would effectively eliminate the distinction between Israel and the settlements for the Israeli population living there.

The Islamic Jihad added transferring civilian law enforcement authority from the Army to police amounts to “eliminating the Green Line administratively and legally for settlers.”

This decision is a continuation of the violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and UN resolutions, including Security Council Resolution 2334, which stipulates that Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 have “no legal validity.”