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.

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