{"id":251046,"date":"2026-08-16T07:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T07:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/251046\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T07:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T07:35:09","slug":"idf-diverted-to-combat-settler-extremism-halting-palestinian-terror-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/251046\/","title":{"rendered":"IDF diverted to combat settler extremism, halting Palestinian terror arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"

The IDF has needed to cancel and postpone the arrest of Palestinians suspected of terrorism as forces are diverted to deal with rising settler extremism<\/a> in the West Bank, Army Radio reported on Sunday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Army Radio, the arrests come at the request of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), to which the IDF has responded that it is “unable” to arrest all of the wanted suspects.<\/p>\n

“The IDF acts in accordance with the assessment of the situation and changing operational considerations, and accordingly prioritizes and allocates its forces to the various missions,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit told Army Radio in response.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that he had instructed the IDF to prepare<\/a> a plan to transfer all civilian enforcement authority for Israeli communities and residents in the West Bank to the Israel Police, as part of a broader effort to redefine the military’s role in the territory.<\/p>\n

According to Katz, the proposed plan would shift responsibility for civilian law enforcement and public order involving the Israeli population in the West Bank from the IDF to the police.<\/p>\n

\"IsraeliIsraeli settler extremists throw stones at a dirt road at the Palestinian village of Kusra, in the West Bank, in an attempt to block the movement of Palestinians and Israeli forces, August 12, 2026 (credit: SCREENSHOT\/VIA SECTION 27A OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT)<\/p>\n

“The IDF’s role is to fight Palestinian terrorism and focus on defending the borders and the communities against threats,” Katz said in a statement.
\u00a0
“All responsibility for enforcing civilian matters and maintaining law and order will be transferred to the police,” he added.<\/p>\n

A senior police official condemned Katz’s decision, telling N12 that the defense minister had “better learn how things work. He’s getting very confused. Let him do his homework.”<\/p>\n

Settler violence reaches peak with Kusra incident<\/p>\n

Both Army Radio’s report and Katz’s statement follow a sharp increase in recent months in settler violence against Palestinians, the most recent of which is the incident in Kusra<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, dozens of settler extremists clashed with the IDF near Kusra after the military evacuated an outpost that was set up in the area.<\/p>\n

The entire area had been declared a closed military zone on Tuesday, following reports of settler extremists entering and taking control of Palestinian homes in the Kusra and Jalud areas of the West Bank.<\/p>\n

IDF sends Golani Brigade, Haruv Reconnaissance Unit to Kusra<\/p>\n

On Thursday morning, the military announced it was sending the 51st Battalion of the IDF’s Golani Brigade to Kusra to take over operations in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

However, according to Army Radio’s report, after deciding that a permanent military presence in Kusra is needed, the battalion is slated to be relieved by the Haruv Reconnaissance Unit, which will arrive in the Palestinian village on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Government officials and settler leaders denounced the incident last week.<\/a> National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir told Reshet Bet that while he admires the settlers building outposts, \u201cthere are some among them who really need to be stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yisrael Gantz, the head of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, described the Kusra incident as \u201cimproper and unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corrine Baum and Shir Perets contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The IDF has needed to cancel and postpone the arrest of Palestinians suspected of terrorism as forces are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[19842,423,37,99,5869,2253,10858,6905],"class_list":["post-251046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-extremism","tag-idf","tag-israel","tag-israel-katz","tag-israel-police","tag-palestinians","tag-settler-violence","tag-west-bank"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117104038986808335","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}