The Biden administration has warned Israel that its decision to stop issuing administrative detention orders against Israeli settlers suspected of attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank could lead to increased violence in the Palestinian territories, two US officials told Axios.

It is noteworthy that the Israeli occupation security forces use administrative detention against Palestinian citizens, but this measure is also used from time to time to combat Jewish terrorism against Palestinians.

Axios reported that US officials told the site that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pushed the Biden administration's message in a call with his counterpart, Israel Katz, on Saturday and expressed deep concern about the decision.

According to the website, Katz told Austin that his decision to stop issuing administrative detention orders against settlers was “an internal step taken out of commitment to democratic principles,” and said that the use of such orders against citizens is not permitted in any democracy in the world, including the United States,” according to a statement by the Israeli Defense Ministry.

"Israel strongly opposes violence of any kind against Palestinians, and will act against it through [Israeli forces], law enforcement authorities and public norms - not through undemocratic measures," Katz added.

The Israeli occupation's internal security agency, Shin Bet, uses administrative detention so as not to reveal its sensitive intelligence sources within extremist Jewish settler groups.

Katz said Friday he met with Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and told him he had decided to stop using administrative detention orders against Jewish settlers in the West Bank and asked him to come up with alternative measures. The Israeli defense minister said his decision was made due to “serious Palestinian terror threats and unjustified international sanctions against the settlers.”

The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on several Jewish settlers and organizations linked to them this year. Behind the scenes: Katz’s decision significantly increases tensions between the Biden administration and Israel, two U.S. officials said.

It is noteworthy that with President Trump taking office in less than two months, there is not much the outgoing administration can do other than express protest in private and public.

One US official told the website that Katz's decision to stop using administrative detention orders against violent settlers is "deeply misguided."

The official added that administrative detention is the only thing that has allowed the Biden administration to claim that Israel is doing something to prevent settler violence. “Now we can’t do that anymore,” the US official said.

The Biden administration says it expects Israel to apply the law equally to Jews and Palestinians in the West Bank, and it also says it expects that administrative detention orders will not be used against Palestinians in the West Bank (alone) and that all terrorism suspects — Jews and Palestinians — will be detained and tried according to the same standards.

The number of Jewish administrative detainees does not exceed ten fingers, while the International Foundation for Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners (Solidarity) revealed last September that the total number of Palestinian detainees in Israeli occupation prisons reached 9,844 until September 1, without including thousands of detainees from Gaza, in light of their continued enforced disappearance amid the ongoing aggression on the Strip.

The Foundation had published extensive statistics on the number of arrests, their types, categories, areas of distribution, and time periods, and stated that the number of arrests in the West Bank since October 7th had reached 10,700 arrests until September 12th, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

The Foundation stated that the number of prisoners held in administrative detention reached 3323, according to the Center for the Defense of the Individual (HaMoked), including (25) female prisoners held in administrative detention, including 4 female journalists, one of whom is a nursing mother and a lawyer, and that there are at least 41 children and 24 journalists, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

8,872 is the number of administrative detention cases after October 7, including new orders and renewal orders, including orders against children and women until September 12, and 2,848 prisoners are detained awaiting trial, 2,061 prisoners are sentenced, and 3,600 prisoners are forcibly disappeared, in addition to 1,612 prisoners from Gaza who the occupation classified as “illegal combatants.”