Palestinian vice president says Israel plan for occupier policing entrenches West Bank annexation

Palestinian Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh said Friday that Israel’s plan to transfer law enforcement powers over occupiers in the West Bank to Israeli police is an attempt to impose sovereignty on the territory and entrench its illegal annexation. In a statement, al-Sheikh strongly condemned Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz’s intention to transfer law enforcement powers over occupiers to Israeli police. “The move constitutes a flagrant violation of international law, international legitimacy resolutions and signed agreements,” he said. “It represents a new attempt to impose Israeli law and sovereignty on the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to entrench the illegal annexation of Palestinian land,” al-Sheikh said. “Settlement in all its forms is illegal and Israel has no sovereignty over any part of the territory of the State of Palestine occupied in 1967,” he added. Al-Sheikh called on the international community, foremost the UN Security Council, to “assume its responsibilities, stop these unilateral and dangerous Israeli measures, and oblige Israel to comply with international legitimacy resolutions and international law.” Earlier Friday, Katz instructed the army to prepare a plan to transfer law enforcement powers over occupiers in the West Bank to Israeli police, which falls under the National Security Ministry led by far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. His office said a special police force would be formed for the task and granted the necessary powers and budget. The decision comes as the Israeli army protects occupiers during their attacks on Palestinians. Hamas also condemned the move, calling it “a dangerous step toward imposing de facto annexation and entrenching control over occupied Palestinian territory by applying occupation laws there, in a flagrant violation of international laws that criminalize settlement.” “Transferring the powers to police under Ben-Gvir’s ministry cannot be separated from Israeli government’s policy aimed at strengthening settlement and imposing new facts on the ground in the West Bank,” the group said. On Wednesday, the UN warned that occupier violence in the West Bank had reached unprecedented levels, saying it had documented more than 1,430 attacks since the start of 2026 targeting around 260 Palestinian communities. The attacks, alongside demolitions and evictions, displaced 3,800 Palestinians, about half of them children, according to the UN.