Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the evacuation of certain settler outposts in the occupied West Bank that are considered illegal even under Israeli law, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich confirmed on Sunday, September 6, 2026. Smotrich said he had been informed that Netanyahu issued the instruction, while making clear he personally opposed the move. Netanyahu's office did not respond to requests for comment.
The outposts in question were built without official Israeli government authorisation, often consisting of little more than a handful of prefabricated structures, and are located in areas nominally under the control of the Palestinian Authority. While all Israeli settlements in the West Bank are regarded as illegal under international law, this subset faces the additional designation of being unlawful by Israel's own standards. Israeli media, including Ynet, the country's largest news site, reported that the order came as a direct result of pressure from the United States.
The move follows a visit to the West Bank on Saturday by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who met with Palestinians holding American citizenship who had been targeted in settler attacks. "Our clear message is that crime is crime, terror is terror," Huckabee said, stopping short of naming Israel explicitly. "When people do it they should have an expectation that they will have severe consequences." The signal from Washington appears to have carried weight, even as the broader settlement enterprise continues to expand under Netanyahu's government.
The West Bank, a landlocked Palestinian territory that has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967, is home to more than 500,000 Israeli settlers living among approximately three million Palestinians. Settlement construction has accelerated significantly under the current government, and as recently as late August Netanyahu had pledged to press ahead with building despite mounting international criticism. Smotrich, who leads a far-right party advocating the annexation of the entire West Bank, separately boasted of having led "a revolution" by constructing and legalising "villages, farms, roads and thousands of homes" across the territory.
The evacuation order, limited in scope as it appears to be, nonetheless represents a notable moment of friction within Israel's governing coalition. The West Bank has experienced a sharp rise in violence since the outbreak of war in Gaza following Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, adding urgency to international calls for restraint on all sides. How far Netanyahu's instruction will be implemented — and whether it signals any broader shift in settlement policy — remains to be seen.