US criticizes Israeli order on West Bank settler outpost

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Sunday rebuked Israel over an order that allows Jewish settlers to establish a permanent presence in a West Bank outpost that Washington has warned Jerusalem it should avoid legitimizing.

The chief of the Israeli military's Central Command signed an order on Thursday that allows Israelis to enter the Homesh outpost in the northern West Bank, paving the way for a formal settlement to be built there, the Times of Israel reported.

"We are deeply troubled by the Israeli government’s order that allows its citizens to establish a permanent presence in the Homesh outpost... which, according to Israeli law. was illegally built on private Palestinian land," US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement on Sunday.

The order is inconsistent with Israeli government commitments made in 2004 and, more recently, to Biden administration officials, Miller said.

Israel's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to Palestinian sources, Israeli forces killed three Palestinian fighters in a Sunday overnight raid in the occupied West Bank

In a statement Monday, the Palestinian health ministry identified the three men killed in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus as Muhammad Abu Zaytoun (32), Fathi Abu Rizk (30) and Abdullah Abu Hamdan (24).

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, said in a statement that the three were among the group's "fighters."

The Israeli army did not immediately comment when contacted by AFP.

Earlier on Sunday, Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, part of a far-right government that came to power in December, visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, sacred to both Muslims and Jews, who know it as Temple Mount, and declared Israel was "in charge."

Miller said Washington was also concerned about the "provocative visit" and "accompanying inflammatory rhetoric."

"This holy space should not be used for political purposes, and we call on all parties to respect its sanctity," Miller said, also reaffirming the US position that the status quo should be maintained at Jerusalem's holy sites.