Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz announced on Friday that he will stop issuing administrative detention orders against terrorist settlers who carry out attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Katz said in a statement that he informed Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar this week of the decision to stop administrative detention orders against settlers, and asked the Shin Bet chief to take alternative measures.

As of the beginning of this month, 8 settlers are subject to administrative detention orders, while there are 3,443 Palestinian administrative detainees in the occupation prisons, according to the Haaretz website.

Katz claimed in his statement that "in a reality in which the Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria faces serious Palestinian terrorist threats, and unjust international sanctions are imposed on settlers, it is inappropriate for the State of Israel to use such a harsh step against settlement elements. If there is suspicion of carrying out criminal acts, the perpetrators can be prosecuted, and if it is not possible to prosecute, there are other preventive steps that can be taken outside the framework of administrative detention."

Following Katz’s decision, coalition ministers and MKs demanded that he cancel the administrative detention orders against eight settlers, claiming that “these are detention orders that were signed with incomprehensible ease, based on political motives and foreign pressures, at the height of the war. The correct treatment of citizens of the state requires understanding that the use of administrative detention, without judicial proceedings, should only be used in very extreme cases, such as those known to us in the activities of murdered enemies among the Israel-haters.”

If there are suspicions against these settlers, the police should kindly open a criminal investigation, as in any other criminal incident in the country.”

Finance and National Security Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir welcomed Katz’s decision, claiming that it “eliminated years of discrimination against the settlers of Judea and Samaria. Katz put an end to the injustice in which the settlers were second-class citizens, and were subjected to extreme and undemocratic methods that trampled on their rights, methods that are not used against any other population group in the State of Israel except for terrorists and dangerous enemies.”

It is noteworthy that the Knesset approved in its preliminary reading, last July, a bill that allows administrative detention only against "members of terrorist organizations that threaten the state or its citizens." The bill aims to create obstacles to issuing administrative detention orders against settlers who carry out terrorist attacks against Palestinians.