Israel to introduce electronic tagging in West Bank

The Israeli army said on Monday (January 5, 2026) it was introducing a new technological system to enforce movement restrictions in the occupied West Bank for both Israelis and Palestinians, in a move Israeli media said aims to rein in surging settler violence.

The decision allows security forces “to install a technological monitoring device on individuals subject to an administrative order restricting their movement within the (West Bank),” the army said in a statement.

The system would allow for monitoring of “violations of these restriction orders accordingly,” it added.

The measure was adopted after a request by head of the domestic Shin Bet security agency David Zini in response to rising violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, Israel’s Channel 12 reported.

The monitoring devices used will be electronic bracelets, according to the Israeli broadcaster.

In response to an AFP query, the army said the measure will be applied to Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Israel has occupied the Palestinian territory since 1967, and now more than 500,000 Israelis live there, along with about three million Palestinian residents.

The army said removing any monitoring device “constitutes an offense, for which criminal proceedings may be initiated”.

Honenu, an Israeli legal aid organisation that assists detainees from right-wing settler communities, slammed the decision and said it would appeal.

In a post on X, it quoted one of its lawyers saying it was an “undemocratic move that reminds of the conduct of oppressive regimes”.

Administrative restrictive orders bar suspects residing in the West Bank from going to certain areas or communicating with certain people.

A more draconian measure, known as administrative detention, allowed Israeli security forces to detain West Bank suspects, both Israelis and Palestinian, for up to six months without charges.

Upon taking office in November 2024, Defence Minister Israel Katz abolished the use of that measure against Israelis, but it is still enforced against Palestinians.

Since the start of the war in Gaza following Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023, violence has also surged in the West Bank.

Despite the delicate truce between Israel and Hamas that came into effect in October, the violence has not ceased.

Israeli troops and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the territory, including many militants as well as dozens of civilians, according to an AFP tally based on figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Almost none of the perpetrators of dozens of attacks carried out by settlers have been held to account by the Israeli authorities.

According to official Israeli figures, at least 44 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, have also been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations in the same period in the West Bank.