Israeli authorities will stop holding Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank under administrative detention, a form of internment widely used against Palestinians, the defence ministry announced on Friday.
The Palestinian Authority swiftly hit out at the decision saying that it "encourages extremist settlers to commit terrorism against Palestinians, their land and their properties, while giving them an additional sense of impunity and protection".
Defence Minister Israel Katz said it was "inappropriate" for Israel to employ administrative detention against settlers who "face severe Palestinian terror threats and unjustified international sanctions".
Both the European Union and the United States have slapped sanctions on extremist settlers over the past year, and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has proposed extending them to their supporters within the Israeli government.
Katz said that prosecution or "other preventive measures" would be used instead to deal with criminal acts in the West Bank.
But settlement watchdog Peace Now said internment was one of the few effective tools that Israeli authorities had to prevent settler attacks against Palestinians, which have surged in the West Bank since the Gaza war erupted in October last year.
Administrative detention dates back to British colonial rule and allows authorities to hold people without charge or trial for six-month periods that can be renewed indefinitely.
It is often used against Palestinians Israel deems security threats.
Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said the authorities used internment "extensively and routinely" to hold thousands of Palestinians for lengthy periods of time.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group told AFP in August that 3,432 Palestinians were held in administrative detention.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Friday that eight settlers were interned as of November.
- 'Cynical' -
Peace Now director Yonatan Mizrahi told AFP that although administrative detention was mostly used to detain Palestinians, it was one of the few effective tools for temporarily removing the threat of settler violence in the West Bank.
"The cancellation of administrative detention orders for settlers alone is a cynical... move that whitewashes and normalises escalating Jewish terrorism under the cover of war," the group said in a statement.
Israel's announcement comes a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant on suspicion of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the conflict sparked by Hamas's unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack.
It also comes after Washington announced its latest round of sanctions on Monday, targeting Amana, a movement that backs settlement development, and others suspected of "ties to violent actors in the West Bank".
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir urged the government to respond to the ICC warrants by annexing the whole of the occupied West Bank, which the Palestinians claim as part of their future state.
Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the West Bank is home to three million Palestinians as well as about 490,000 Israelis living in settlements which the United Nations says are illegal under international law.