As Jewish settler attacks against Arabs continue, IDF commanders demand return of detention orders revoked by DM Katz

IDF officers in Judea and Samaria – internationally known as the West Bank – are calling for the military to resume the use of administrative detention orders to help stop a rising wave of attacks by an extremist group of Israelis often referred to as the Hilltop Youth. 

According to a report in Ynet News, during a meeting of brigade commanders of units in Judea and Samaria in October, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir was asked to reimplement the use of administrative detention against members of the movement. 

Administrative detention is a law enforcement method that allows the state to temporarily detain an individual without a trial if they are determined to be an imminent security risk. The measure has often been used against suspected or known Palestinian terrorists, but in recent years, it has been applied to Jewish settlers suspected of violence against Palestinians. 

The use of such administrative detention orders was cancelled by Defense Minister Israel Katz, following pressure from right-wing coalition parties like Religious Zionism, lead by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Jewish Power, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. 

At the time, Katz said that there were other legal means of dealing with criminal acts of violence. 

“If there is suspicion of committing criminal acts, the perpetrators can be prosecuted, and if not, there are other preventive measures that can be taken other than administrative arrest,” Katz wrote in a statement explaining his decision to suspend the use of administrative detention. 

However, Katz also noted that he condemns “any phenomenon of violence against Palestinians and taking the law into their own hands, and also appeal to the settlement leadership to take a similar public position and express an unequivocal position on the issue.” 

The meeting, which happened in October, took place before a violent attack by members of the Hilltop Youth against a Bedouin farm near Hebron in which drew international condemnation, after pictures and video showed sheep and goats which had been killed or viciously injured by members of the group. 

According to the report in Ynet, the military commanders complained that police rarely enforce the law, and rarely make arrests, even when presented with evidence of the perpetrators committing violent acts. 

Following the reports of yesterday’s violence, Commander of the Central Command, MG Avi Bluth, made it clear that the IDF does not accept any situation in which lawbreakers harm property & innocent civilians:

“The directive to IDF soldiers is clear: do not stand idly by, and do… pic.twitter.com/xFfEpa2TEk

— LTC Nadav Shoshani (@LTC_Shoshani) November 12, 2025

The military has recently begun to station hundreds of additional troops near hotspot areas, in order to prevent large-scale acts of violence. However, the army commanders stressed that government authorities, including police and border police, need to take such incidents seriously. 

The increasing number of illegal settlements in Judea and Samaria has made policing such incidents more difficult, and soldiers, many of them reservists who saw long periods of duty due to the war, do not have the motivation to do such policing work. 

“Defense territory in the West Bank has grown by 200 percent in recent years, so any involvement in non‑enemy defense undermines our mission,” the military warned. 

Despite claims by settler movements such as Regavim, the IDF and Shin Bet have recorded a rise in nationalist violence by settlers against Palestinians over the past two years. Increasingly, the violent elements in the settler movement have begun targeting IDF and police forces. 

At the same time, Ynet News cited anonymous sources in the broader settler movement when claim that a more extremist and anarchist group has emerged within the Hilltop Youth movement, one which does not respect the Israeli government. This group, which was predicted by Israeli researcher Idan Yaron, who spent over a decade getting to know the leaders of the Hilltop Youth and other Kahanist groups within the settler movement. 

In 2023, Yaron warned that backing of government ministers sympathetic to the Hilltop Youth, like Ben Gvir and Smotrich, would lead to an increase in violence by the group. 

The recent increase in violence by the Hilltop Youth was also condemned by President Isaac Herzog, who wrote a post to social media Tuesday evening, saying, “The harsh events that took place this evening in the Shomron by a handful of violent and dangerous individuals are shocking and serious. Such violence against civilians and against IDF soldiers crosses a red line and I condemn it severely. All state authorities must act decisively to eradicate the phenomenon and to strengthen the IDF fighters and security forces who protect us day and night.”