Shin Bet, IDF call for reinstating administrative detentions, creating settler violence task force

Shin Bet Director David Zini also warned the Security Cabinet that Hamas is planning to kidnap IDF soldiers, particularly during the upcoming election period.

Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Director David Zini told the Security Cabinet on Monday that it must consider reinstating administrative detentions over extremist nationalist terrorism in the West Bank.

"If the measures currently being used, along with the special task force they are seeking to establish, prove ineffective, there will be no choice but to recommend administrative detention," Zini said.

Additionally, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir called for the establishment of a joint dedicated task force to fight nationalist crime in the West Bank during the Security Cabinet meeting.

"The military's tools regarding this issue are limited," Zamir said.

The discussion comes amid heightened security concerns in the West Bank, where Israeli security forces continue to contend with multiple forms of violence and criminal activity. The issue of nationalist violence has increasingly featured in security discussions, alongside ongoing operations against Palestinian terrorist networks.

Upcoming Knesset elections, October 7 anniversary leading to 'sensitive period,' Zamir says

Zamir also warned members of the Security Cabinet that Israel is entering a particularly sensitive period, citing both the upcoming elections at the end of the month and the anniversary of the October 7 attack.

"This is a sensitive period, both because of the elections at the end of the month and because of the inauguration in October; there are quite a few threats, and the IDF is on alert," Zamir told the Security Cabinet on Monday, two sources confirmed to The Jerusalem Post.

During the meeting, ministers received a briefing on the different fronts Israel has fought in during the three years since the October 7 massacre.

On the Gaza front, Zini warned the ministers that Hamas is planning to kidnap soldiers. "They might try to do it near election time," Zini said.

IDF Intelligence Chief Maj.-Gen. Shlomi Binder told the ministers that 95% of the tunnels inside the yellow line have been destroyed.

"Hamas is making huge efforts to arm itself - it doesn't seem it is headed toward demilitarization," Binder added.