Describing IDF presence in depopulated West Bank camps as ‘permanent,’ Katz says not High Court’s business to intervene

Defense Minister Israel Katz urges the High Court of Justice not to intervene in what he describes as operational IDF activity, after the top court earlier today instructed the Defense Ministry and the army to provide a timetable for the return of displaced Palestinians in the northern West Bank to their homes amid the ongoing counterterror operations in the region.

In 2025, the IDF launched a major counterterror operation in Palestinian camps in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams, clearing them of residents, and saying they served as hotbeds of terror activity.

The operation led to the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians, who have not been allowed to return.

In its decision, the court accepted that security conditions are not yet ripe to allow residents to return, but instructed the army to present a timetable for when such a return could happen.

In his response, Katz describes the IDF presence in the camps as “permanent,” claiming that, as a result, terrorism in the West Bank “has dropped 80 percent to its lowest-ever rate.”

“The IDF staying long-term in the camps is not a judicial issue but an operational security issue that is needed to save the lives of Israeli soldiers and civilians in the face of grave threats and work by external jihadist elements supported by Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood to advance October 7-style terror activity in Judea and Samaria as well,” Katz says, using the territory’s biblical name.

“It is not the High Court’s business to intervene in this sort of security decisions, just as it is not its business to intervene in operational activity in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, or Iran,” he asserts.

“On this matter, I don’t intend to compromise, even if it requires special legislative proceedings in the Knesset.”