IDF draws fire from far right as settlement minor placed under administrative house arrest

A 14-year-old resident of Yitzhar has been issued with an administrative order placing him under nightly house arrest and banning him from leaving the West Bank settlement.

According to the Honenu legal aid organization, which often represents extremist settlers and other Israeli Jews accused of nationalistic-motivated crimes, the order was issued by head of IDF Central Command Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fox, and is valid for three months.

Honenu describes the administrative order as “crazy,” and denounces Fox, who has become a hated figure for much of the settlement movement and the Israeli hard right, for “persecuting the community of settlers.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a pro-settlement hardliner, slams Fox and attacks Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the “insane” decision.

“This is not what a defense minister who is protecting settlers looks like, it is what a defense minister who is harassing them looks like,” he says.

Several such orders have been issued by the security services since the outbreak of war with Hamas, amid a severe spike in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank following the October 7 Hamas onslaught.