Katz orders end to administrative restraining order on detained settler extremist
Times of Israel · LC · trust 38/100
Defense Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday said he instructed Israel’s security forces not to renew an administrative restraining order against a violent settler, detained for allegedly abusing a Palestinian, which aims to bar him from the West Bank.
Tal Yinon Dardik is suspected of a brutal attack in Khirbet Humsa, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, where he, along with other extremist settlers, allegedly stripped a Palestinian victim, zip-tied his genitals, and paraded him around the village in March. Dardik denies taking part in the incident.
After refusing to be placed under house arrest outside of his settlement farm, he was placed in a detention cell, where he has been on a hunger strike for over three weeks.
An administrative order enables authorities to hold or restrict suspects indefinitely without charge. The measure is used almost exclusively against Palestinians after Katz sought to end its use against Jewish extremists.
Last week, Katz reportedly visited Dardik in his jail cell.
Meanwhile, a military-legal committee approved an appeal against the restraining order issued by Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth.
Katz said he held an assessment with top military, police, and defense officials on Monday, and instructed them not to renew the order, “and that the issue instead be addressed through other means.”
Additionally, in the assessment, Katz said he instructed the military to increase operations against “Palestinian terrorism, which is attempting to rear its head” and to be prepared to take over another West Bank refugee camp, similar to operations carried out by the army in early 2025.
Recent weeks have seen a major surge in settler attacks. The government has, however, sought to portray the increased violence as resulting from Palestinian terror.
Israel has come under fire for rarely carrying out arrests in instances of settler violence, with indictments and convictions even more infrequent.
Shin Bet figures from earlier this year found that three times more Palestinians were victims of terror attacks in the West Bank than Jews.
The IDF recorded 867 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence in 2025. The total for 2024 was 682 incidents.
Also, on Tuesday, the Jordan Valley Activists organization published footage showing Israeli military and Civil Administration forces demolishing a Palestinian family’s compound that was built without a permit in Ein al-Hilweh in the northern Jordan Valley in the West Bank.
The family petitioned the High Court of Justice against the demolition, and it was being carried out despite an interim court order instructing the state not to demolish the structures until it submits its response.
This was the second time this month that a demolition has reportedly been carried out at the site despite a court order.
The Civil Administration did not respond to a request for comment from The Times of Israel.
Separately, a Palestinian-American national said IDF soldiers forced his family out of their home on Monday in the central West Bank village of Turmus Ayya so that troops could use it as a lookout position.
New York-based neurologist Hassan Said Shukri told Palestinian media that soldiers raided his home and pointed their weapons at his parents, giving them one hour to pack up their things and refusing to say how long they’d be barred from returning.
BREAKING: The Israeli army occupied the home of an American citizen in the village of Turmus Ayya, expelled the residents, and raised Israeli flags over a house that had been flying an American flag.
Dr. Hassan Said Shukri had just returned from the United States last week, only… pic.twitter.com/JW97wFw5CA
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) July 27, 2026
Shukri said he had reached out to the US Embassy in Jerusalem for assistance but was told that there was nothing that could be done.
An embassy spokesperson later told The Times of Israel, “The US State Department has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizen overseas. Due to privacy regulations, we have no additional details at this time.”
Additionally, during a large-scale raid in the West Bank this week, IDF troops captured 30 Palestinians suspected of involvement in smuggling Palestinians into Israel illegally for work, the military said on Tuesday.
Troops of the Ephraim Regional Brigade operated in Tulkarem, Qalqiliya, Azzun Atma, Shweika, and several other Palestinian villages on Sunday.
“As part of the operation, the forces scanned dozens of sites and apprehended some 30 wanted [Palestinians] suspected of involvement in smuggling illegals and aiding in infiltrations,” the army said.
The IDF also said it lifted a short ban on Palestinians being allowed to work in West Bank settlements.
Following Friday’s deadly gunfight in the West Bank village of Tell in which two Israelis and four Palestinians were killed, IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth announced that Palestinians who have permits to enter settlements for work would not be able to do so. Some exceptions were given.
“In accordance with the situational assessment, beginning tomorrow, Palestinian workers will be permitted to return to communities in Judea and Samaria, in accordance with the worker security procedures for industrial zones and communities,” the military said, referring to the West Bank by its biblical names.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war in October 2023.
More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the war began, according to the PA health ministry. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, some 68 civilians and Israeli security personnel have been killed in Israel and the West Bank, most of them in terror attacks. Another eight members of the security…
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