Qusra (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Israel’s defence minister called on Friday for the police to take over law enforcement in the occupied West Bank from the military, which has come under fire from the right for trying to remove settlers harassing Palestinians.

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.

As international criticism grew, Defence Minister Israel Katz’s office announced he had instructed the military 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 the three million Palestinians of the West Bank, where some 500,000 Israelis have also settled since Israel seized the territory in 1967.

The army’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 October 27 elections, in which polls show a close contest for Netanyahu.

Settlement construction has soared under Netanyahu’s government, alongside violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Near Hebron, two people were treated Friday for gunshot wounds including one to the head after a settler attack, while a 16-year-old boy was taken to hospital for a gunshot wound in Bethlehem, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.

- ‘So ashamed’ -

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 Friday, but they appeared to have dispersed from the immediate vicinity 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.

Israeli forces removed five Italian volunteer activists who had gone to stay in the besieged houses, Italian and local officials said.

- International pressure -

US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, for years a staunch supporter of settlers, on Thursday called the violence “disgusting” and “thuggish behaviour”. A US citizen owns one of the besieged homes.

France’s foreign ministry on Friday condemned the siege “in the strongest possible terms” and called on Israel to arrest those responsible.

Earlier footage had appeared to show Israeli troops praying alongside the settlers. The army vowed to punish complicit soldiers, with Huckabee saying Israel took action after a US request.

Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, himself a settler, said Friday that the siege ran contrary to Jewish values.

“When a gang of hooligans wreaks havoc with gratuitous violence, diverting energy from Israel’s own military and law enforcement while claiming that it is for the sake of the land, that is a distortion, even a sacrilege,” he said.

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