Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has scrapped a three-decade-old agreement with the Palestinian Authority, writing on X on Tuesday that he had "cancelled the Hebron Agreement."
Smotrich wrote that numerous powers in the divided West Bank city of Hebron and at its holy sites - including the Cave of the Patriarchs, or Sanctuary of Abraham - would no longer rest with the Palestinian municipal authority of Hebron, "but will return fully to the responsibility of the State of Israel."
He called the move a "historic correction" and said it continued the "revolution" to legalize Israeli settlements and "deepen Israeli sovereignty" in the West Bank.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned of the seriousness of the move, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
He called on the international community to intervene immediately and press Israeli authorities to reverse the highly dangerous decision, saying the move undermined efforts to reach a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a two-state solution.
The Israeli organization Peace Now also criticized the decision as "a dangerous and irresponsible step by a failed politician."
The government had "failed on all fronts" in the regional war, and now "the arsonist Smotrich is trying to set the occupied West Bank on fire," it said.
The Hebron Agreement was reached in 1997 under a previous government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, who was also prime minister at the time.
It provided for the division of the city, with Israel retaining control over one fifth of it to protect several hundred mostly radical Jewish settlers. An estimated 200,000 Palestinians live in the city.
The Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron is traditionally held to be the burial site of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. The site is sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims. It is divided into a synagogue and the Ibrahimi Mosque, with the synagogue under Israeli administration.
The Israeli news site Ynet reported that for nearly three decades, certain planning and construction measures in the Jewish quarter of Hebron and at nearby holy sites had required the approval of the Hebron municipal authority or special political authorization. Smotrich's new decision transfers those powers to Israeli planning authorities.
According to government officials, the move also means the Hebron municipal authority will no longer provide certain municipal services to the Jewish quarter, including waste collection and the issuing of building permits. Israeli authorities and the military are to assume full responsibility there instead.
Israel took control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, among other territories, in the Six-Day War of 1967. Some 700,000 Israeli settlers now live there among 3 million Palestinians. The Palestinians claim the territories for a state of their own, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
