Katz says Palestinian trash burning nat’l security threat, okays rules for confiscating vehicles

Reportedly, Palestinians lack sufficient local landfills, requiring them to transport their waste by truck to other sites. However, truckers often dump the waste earlier to save time and money, and i

Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday announced the approval of new government regulations providing for the confiscation of vehicles and equipment used for mass Palestinian trash burning in the West Bank, potentially causing respiratory harm.

Katz said that after he and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared the recent phenomenon of large-scale trash burning a national security threat on December 18, the Justice Ministry approved new regulations in line with their declaration.

The defense minister said that IDF Central Command Chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth will sign the final application of the new rules into law in the coming days.

Reportedly, Palestinians lack sufficient local landfills, requiring them to transport their waste by truck to other sites. However, truckers often dump the waste earlier to save time and money, and it is then burned.

Following a meeting with the IDF Civil Administration head for Judea and Samaria, Brig.-Gen. In mid-December, Hisham Ibrahim of the Health Ministry, along with a large number of mayors and regional council heads in both Green Line Israel and Judea and Samaria, Katz and Smotrich put forward a five-point plan to address the issue.

Katz declares Palestinian trash burning a national security issue

The first point in the plan was taking the legal and conceptual measures of declaring it a national security issue, rather than a mere nuisance.

With that declaration, the goal was to change the focus and heavily increase the kinds of resources that can be brought to bear to confront the issue.

Regarding the second point of the new policy, granting administrative powers to the IDF Central Command, which governs the West Bank, Katz said, “the decision we made less than a month ago…was not just a declaration – it was a commitment to action. Amending the Security Regulations is a direct implementation of that emergency decision.”

“It gives the relevant authorities real teeth to act against actors who are polluting, endangering, and harming the citizens of Israel,” he added.

Next, he stated, “We will harm their methods of operation, negate the economic profit, and create clear deterrence in the field.”

The defense minister said that he would “not allow a reality in which Israeli citizens breathe poison” and would continue to act “until the phenomenon is uprooted from its roots.”

Aspects of how exactly the new policy will cut back the phenomenon are unclear.

An alternative outcome might be Israel just taking possession of trash-loaded trucks, or possibly that the trash might be burned in smaller increments closer to wherever it was produced. Even if the trash was burned in smaller increments and more locally, the distance between many Palestinian villages and Israel is small enough that the main issue would not necessarily be addressed.

A third element of the new policy was that Israel will allocate funding, currently with no set limit, to bring aboard heavy vehicles and private companies that can both put out fires and remove and transfer the garbage to a landfill.

It was unclear when this new policy would be rolled out in practice.

Moreover, Katz and Smotrich had promised more aggressive enforcement and penalties for those who do burn trash in violation of the law.

Last, a website for keeping track of all such trash fires is due to be established to better share information and enhance rapid reaction time to new incidents.

Other officials also talked about establishing new landfills in the West Bank and put the budget for the new campaign at tens of millions of shekels

There was also talk of fining the Palestinian Authority when Israel will need to act to address and clear Palestinians trash and of starting the campaign with the Palestinian village of Naalin.

In October 2025 alone, the nonprofit Citizens for Clean Air hotline reportedly received 2,763 complaints nationwide about air pollution and smoke — 1,034 of them from Modi’in, accounting for roughly 37.5% of all reports.

Since then, local leaders have been trying to raise the profile of the issue nationally, but these last few weeks have been the first serious move to address the problem.

In November 2025, the Environmental Ministry issued a plan with many overlapping parameters.

But Katz and Smotrich have far more power and latitude to throw resources at the issue, especially given the involvement of Palestinians, than the much smaller Environmental Ministry.