In a statement, Al-Sheikh said the decision represents a blatant violation of international law, international legitimacy resolutions and signed agreements, describing it as a new effort to impose Israeli law and sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and to entrench the unlawful annexation of Palestinian territory.
Al-Sheikh stressed that Israeli colonization in all its forms is illegal and that Israel has no sovereignty over any part of the territory of the State of Palestine occupied since 1967.
He called on the international community, particularly the United Nations Security Council, to assume its responsibilities, halt what he described as unilateral and dangerous Israeli measures, and compel Israel to abide by international law and international legitimacy resolutions.
The Israeli move comes amid mounting international concern over escalating settler violence, settlement expansion and the displacement of Palestinians across the occupied West Bank.
Under the existing system, the occupation army can detain Israeli citizens suspected of crimes in the West Bank before transferring them to civilian police authorities. Moving primary law-enforcement responsibilities directly to the Israel Police would therefore deepen the role of Israeli civilian state institutions in administering Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.
Palestinian officials, legal experts and rights groups have characterized such measures as part of a broader process of de facto and potentially de jure annexation, in which Israeli governmental and legal structures are increasingly integrated into the occupied territory.
The move also comes against the backdrop of an intensifying campaign of Israeli settler violence and settlement expansion.
According to figures cited by the Palestinian Commission Against the Wall and Settlements, Israeli occupation forces and settlers carried out 2,256 attacks against Palestinians, their land and property in July. Israeli soldiers were responsible for 1,458 of the attacks, while settlers carried out 798.
The commission said settlers killed seven Palestinians in July in the Nablus and Ramallah governorates and attempted to establish 29 new settlement outposts across nine governorates.
Israeli authorities also carried out 80 demolition operations during the month, destroying 165 structures, including 80 inhabited homes and 63 agricultural facilities. Israeli authorities issued 33 military orders, including 31 land-seizure orders covering more than 830 dunams of Palestinian-owned land.
The commission said Israeli planning authorities also reviewed 26 plans for expanding settlements across the occupied West Bank and within Israel-defined municipal boundaries in occupied East Jerusalem.
The latest Israeli move follows a week of heightened scrutiny over settler violence, including an extended siege of Palestinian homes in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus.
Israeli settlers had blockaded Palestinian homes in Qusra, with residents reporting that they were prevented from receiving food and other supplies. Israeli forces subsequently intervened, dismantling two settler outposts and detaining one Israeli, while residents said settlers continued to remain in the vicinity.
The incident drew unusually strong criticism from the United States. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee condemned the siege, describing the actions of those involved as an “act of terror” intended to intimidate and harass a Palestinian family.
The UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory also called on Israeli authorities to act immediately against the settlers, warning that settler attacks supported or tolerated by the occupying power were making life unbearable for Palestinian families and were aimed at forcing them from their homes and land.
The European Union likewise called on Israel to take concrete measures to prevent settler violence.
At the same time, Katz attended a ceremony marking the reopening of the Israeli settlement of Ganim in the northern West Bank, one of four settlements dismantled more than two decades ago under former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's 2005 disengagement plan.
The developments come as Israeli authorities signal plans for a broader military campaign in the West Bank.
Katz has warned that Israel would deal with the West Bank as it has with Gaza and Lebanon if Palestinians chose confrontation, referring to areas such as Gaza City's Shuja'iyya neighborhood and Jabalia that have suffered extensive destruction during Israel's war on Gaza.
On July 28, Katz also said he had instructed the military to seize another Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank and ordered that the operation follow the model used in the Tulkarm, Nur Shams and Jenin refugee camps.
The Israeli military's operations in those camps in early 2025 resulted in the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees. Nearly 20 months later, the United Nations says more than 33,000 Palestinian refugees remain unable to return to their homes.
Human Rights Watch described Katz's announcement as sending an “extremely dangerous message,” warning of the potential expansion of forced displacement across the West Bank.
International concern over the situation intensified this week at the UN Security Council, where UN officials warned that the West Bank had reached a critical point amid escalating settler attacks, military operations and displacement.
Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN deputy special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told the council that 76 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank since the beginning of 2026, including 18 children, while about 3,800 Palestinians, nearly half of them children, had been displaced by settler violence, demolitions and evictions.
The UN has documented more than 1,430 incidents of settler violence so far this year affecting around 260 Palestinian communities, Alakbarov said, warning that attacks were increasingly spreading beyond Area C into Areas B and A, where the Palestinian Authority exercises varying degrees of administrative control under the Oslo Accords.
“The pattern is clear,” Alakbarov told the council, warning that Palestinians were being forcibly displaced across the West Bank before settlers moved into the vacated land.
Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour said Israeli annexation of Palestinian territory was already underway, calling for international action to uphold Palestinian self-determination and freedom.
The Israeli settlement enterprise has expanded substantially across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. More than half a million Israeli settlers live in settlements across the West Bank, in addition to more than 200,000 Israeli settlers in occupied East Jerusalem.
In its 2024 advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice further concluded that Israel's continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful and found that its settlement policy and related measures violate international law.
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