Overview
- Bezalel Smotrich announced Monday that he had cancelled the 1997 Hebron Protocol, a move he said ends Palestinian municipal control over construction in the city.
- Israel’s Higher Planning Council finalised late Monday the transfer of municipal planning and construction powers in Hebron from the Palestinian Hebron Municipality to Israeli state institutions.
- The change removes Palestinian authority over planning at the Ibrahimi Mosque and surrounding areas and places decisions about holy sites and adjacent settlements under Israeli oversight.
- The policy shift follows months of intensified Israeli military raids, curfews, tightened checkpoints and growing settler control in H2 that have already limited Palestinian movement and municipal functions.
- The decision has increased international scrutiny, including a reported April ICC arrest-warrant application against Smotrich, and could worsen humanitarian pressures on roughly 7,000 Palestinians living near the Ibrahimi Mosque.