Israeli Security Minister Yoav Gallant instructed the Israeli occupation forces to allow Israeli settlers to enter an area of the northern West Bank they had been banned from entering since the liberation of the Gaza Strip in 2005.

While the law prohibiting Israelis from entering the West Bank areas was repealed by the Israeli Knesset last year, the Israeli occupation forces are still prohibiting the settlers from entering under military orders in four settlements that had been declared a closed military zone.

Gallant's order rescinds the declaration of a "closed military zone" in three of the four settlements, which he said would lead to "the development of settlement and provide security to the residents of the region."

This follows on the heels of a similar order issued just last year in May, which removed the closed military zone at the illegal outpost of Homesh, another settlement that was evacuated and demolished in the wake of the liberation of Gaza.

Gallant also said that this move, essentially allowing for further expansion of Israeli settlements in violation of the Palestinian territories, which he termed the "Jewish hold" on the West Bank "guarantees security".

Moreover, he claimed that "the application of the law to repeal the Disengagement Law will lead to the development of settlement and provide security to the residents of the region."

The Israeli minister's decision comes amid heightened levels of settler violence, and it gives more ground for settlers to perpetrate violence against Palestinian civilians.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk underlined in March that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have increased by a record amount and they risk eliminating any practical possibility of a Palestinian state. 

He said that the growth of Israeli settlements amounted to "Israel's" transfer of its own population, which he said constituted a war crime, which echoes the Biden administration's statement last month that the settlements were "inconsistent" with international law after the occupation announced new building plans.

'Shocking levels' of violence

Accompanying the report due to be presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva later this month, Turk said: "Settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian State". 

In a related statement, "Israel's" diplomatic mission in Geneva argued that the deaths of 36 Israelis in 2023 should have been included in the report. 

"Human rights are universal, yet Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism are ignored by the Office (of the High Commissioner) time and time again".