Settlement & Annexation Report: May 28, 2026

West Bank

Israel Expropriates Nabi Samwil Antiquity Site Currently Managed by the Muslim Waqf

The Israeli Civil Administration issued an expropriation order to seize the Nabi Samwil antiquity site, located just north of Jerusalem’s municipal boundary in the Palestinian village of Nabi Samwil. The seizure order affects a mosque that is currently managed by the Palestinian Authority’s Muslim Waqf, marking the first time Israel has unilaterally taken control of a holy site owned by the Waqf. In addition to the mosque, Israel has expropriated the archaeological site around the mosque, a spring, agricultural lands, and access roads leading to the area – a total of 109.79 dunams (27 acres).

The Civil Administration explained it was seizing the site “for the public benefit, for the purposes of undertaking a development project to preserve the archaeological site of the Prophet Samuel’s tomb,” claiming that there are safety issues in the compound. Israel is advancing development plans for several other significant antiquity sites that have been under Palestinian control across the West Bank, most notably Sebastia.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“Once again, we find ourselves confronting decisions by the Civil Administration, operating under Minister Smotrich, that are intended to expand and deepen annexation. From plans to expand settlements and unprecedented declarations of ‘state land,’ the Civil Administration has moved on to taking control of heritage sites and is now appropriating religious sites, creating tension in some of the most peaceful and sensitive places in the West Bank. The messianic agenda of the Israeli government should have been stopped long ago. Instead, each passing day appears to further endanger us and create the conditions for transforming a political conflict into a religious war.”

The Palestinian village of Nabi Samwil  is located on a strategic and highly prized hilltop (inside of an area Israel post-facto declared a national park) just outside of the municipal borders of Jerusalem but on the Israeli side of the separation barrier — placing residents (who have West Bank ID cards) in a Kafka-esque situation wherein they are cut off from both Jerusalem and the West Bank (legally they are forbidden from taking the one road out of the village into Jerusalem, since they are West Bankers, and the West Bank is accessible only via a circuitous route that passes through an Israeli checkpoint – for background see: The Palestinian village where Israel forbids everything). The suffocation of Nabi Samwil is in line with Israel’s long-time ambitions to completely de-populate the village and take control of the land.

 

Israel Takes Another Step Towards Forcible Transfer of Khan Al-Ahmar

Ir Amim reports the Civil Administration issued a seizure order for a strip of land running through the Khan al-Ahmar bedouin community’s land to enable the construction of a new water line between two nearby settlements, Mishor Adumim and Kfar Adumim. The seizure order was issued the same day, May 19th, that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich vowed to move forward with the long-stalled forcible transfer of Khan al-Ahmar.

Ir Amim further details:

“Moreover, the water line is clearly not intended to serve Khan al-Ahmar or other Palestinian communities in the area. It is rather designed to upgrade infrastructure for the settler population in the E1/Maaleh Adumim area. Since Kfar Adumim is already connected to water infrastructure, the new line likely indicates preparations for the expansion of Kfar Adumim and/or other nearby settlements.”

 

Bibi Requests Review of Annexation via Antiquities Bill

The Times of Israel reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu has directed his Cabinet Secretary to prepare a comprehensive review of a bill to annex antiquity sites in the West Bank and Gaza. Bibi’s request might be intended to delay or scuttle the bill, which has faced heavy international criticism in addition to opposition by Israeli legal advisors and defense experts. Just this week the Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee Legal Adviser Tami Sela wrote a position paper criticizing the bill saying that it “contradicts” international law, specifically with regard to the bill’s application to Areas A & B in the West Bank and to Gaza. The Israeli army has also expressed opposition.

In addition to fast-tracking a bill to create an Israeli civilian authority to control antiquity sites in all areas of the West Bank and Gaza, the Israeli government is simultaneously proceeding with the appointment of a new head of the Israel Antiquities Authority that is both unqualified and clearly political. A group of 60 archaeologists petitioned the Knesset this week to block the appointment.

 

Israel Launches Online West Bank Land Registration System

On May 27th the Israeli government launched an electronic registration system for the “Land Registry and Settlement of Rights” for Area C of the West Bank. The online system is an instrument for the implementation of a February 2026 decision by the Israeli Security Cabinet to publish the West Bank land registry and to revive a “State Land Acquisition Committee.” These moves are best understood as a way to annex the West Bank, to help facilitate settler claims over disputed and/or unregistered land, and to spur the proactive government purchases of West Bank land for the purpose of settlement expansion. 

The Palestinian Authority urged Palestinians to withhold information from Israeli entities working on the registration system, which Birzeit University’s Institute of Law argues consolidates Israeli dominance, marginalizes the Palestinian Authority, legitimizes settlement expansion, and creates irreversible facts on the ground.

Following the Security Cabinet’s February 2026 decisions, the full Israeli Cabinet quickly approved the decisions and allocated a four-year, $78 million (NIS 244.1 million) budget to establish a mechanism (with up to 35 employees) for updating the records in Area C of the West Bank. The Israeli Justice Ministry is tasked with carrying out the land registration process, effectively transferring sovereignty over Area C from the Israeli military to Israeli civilian governance, clear annexation. According to Peace Now, the process of land registration in Area C carried out will lead to the wide scale dispossession of Palestinians from the area. The Cabinet set a target goal of completing the land registration process for 15% of Area C within the next five years.

Yara Asi explains for the Arab Center DC:

“Israel’s February 2026 decisions mark a turning point in the governance of the West Bank. While presented as administrative measures, they collectively restructure land, authority, and law in ways that extend beyond the logic of temporary occupation. Through land registration, control is converted into ownership; through governance reforms, Israeli authority is extended across territorial lines; and through judicial changes, the limited constraints on these processes are further weakened. Together, these developments reflect a shift from managing occupied territory to integrating it into Israel.

This transformation carries significant legal and political implications. By embedding control within legal and institutional frameworks, these measures reduce the prospect of reversal and reshape the conditions for any future political settlement. In this sense, they illustrate a broader strategy of annexation through law—one that proceeds without formal declaration yet produces many of its defining effects.”

Itay Epshtain posted on X:

“The system, codenamed “Grenade”, was launched this morning and openly endorsed by Ministers Smotrich and Strook as “a central pillar in applying sovereignty in the territory and strengthening our hold and roots in Judea and Samaria.”

The candor is striking. What was once advanced incrementally, is now pursued through digitized cadastral engineering. A land registry presented as bureaucratic modernization is, in substance, an instrument for the consolidation of unlawful territorial acquisition.

International law is neither ambiguous nor silent. An occupying Power is prohibited from annexing occupied territory, permanently appropriating public or private property outside the strict limits of military necessity, or altering the legal status of the territory under occupation. Yet this is precisely what is now occurring, in broad daylight, through administrative and technological means designed to render unlawful presence increasingly irreversible.”

As a reminder, only one-third of West Bank land was registered and titled (under the British Mandatory government and then continued by Jordan) when Israel seized control of the West Bank and froze land registration proceedings. The publication of the West Bank land registry is something the settlement movement has pushed for in order to be able to identify landowners in all areas of the West Bank and approach them for purchase, which – with the repeal of the ban on the sale of land to non-Arabs – settlers can now do outright. Opening the land registry will help facilitate settler claims over disputed and/or unregistered lands, making Palestinians vulnerable to further settler harassment regarding the sale of land.

As reported by Israel Hayom in 2020, the Israeli land registration process would first require a survey of the land, after which time anyone claiming ownership could present documents to the Israeli government seeking to prove their ownership. In the case of land where Israel recognizes no valid ownership claims – including cases where Palestinians do not have documentation that Israel will accept – Haaretz has previously reported that the process gives heavy weight to whomever currently controls the land (e.g., if a settler has built illegally on Palestinian land and lived there, under the protection of the IDF, the process will give weight to their claim absent overwhelming documentation, accepted by Israel, from the Palestinian owner). The registration decisions can be appealed, but once the claims are resolved by an Israeli official appointed to oversee the process, no further appeal is possible. Moreover, all “unclaimed” land – that is, land over which Israel does not recognize any legal ownership, will automatically become “state land.

Shlomo Zacharia, a land lawyer working with Yesh Din, further explained how the process of Israeli-controlled land registration will dispossess Palestinians, saying:

“If a village has 30 plots, with [specific, documented] ownership claims on only 20 of those, the other ten automatically transfer to the state. If you haven’t filed a claim of ownership, it goes to the state. Period. The arrangement will primarily benefit the Civil Administration and the settlers, since most of the land allocated by the state goes to settlers, and because the arrangement process (in Israel and the West Bank) favors the person holding the land in practice.”

 

Israel Seizes  Area A Land Inside Jenin for Army Base

972 Magazine reports the Israeli army seized land inside of the Palestinian village of Jenin, on a hilltop overlooking the Jenin refugee camp, in order to establish an army base. Dror Etkes (Kerem Navot) reports the seizure order coupled with newly paved military roads nearby suggest Israel has plans to establish a large military base there, marking the first time since the signing of the Olso Accords that Israeli seized land in Area A for a military base. Etkes ties the move to the broader Israeli government move to expand settlements around the Jenin area. Etkes says:

“There are more than 100 new settlements [including outposts] in the West Bank, and 15 in the Jenin area alone,” he said. “This is not just going back to the four settlements dismantled in 2005. It is something much larger. This is [Israel] reestablishing a military presence in the Jenin area, The only reasonable interpretation is that it is directly related to the biggest settlement boom in the West Bank…The aim is to strengthen the settlements that already exist along these routes, effectively surrounding Jenin and disconnecting it from its immediate rural surroundings. These are methods that we recognize from settlement expansion patterns elsewhere.”

Bonus Reads

  1. “Humanitarian Situation Report | 25 May 2026” (OCHA)
  2. “Pastoral Settlement: Dispossession, Forced Displacement and the Erosion of Livestock-Based Livelihoods in the Context of Eid al-Adha” (Balasan Initiative, 5/26/26)
  3. “The Four Steps Israel Is Taking to Clear Palestinians From West Bank’s E1 Area” (Haaretz, 5/27/26)
  4. “’They stole our sheep, killed my son’: Israeli settlers, soldiers attack and loot West Bank villages” (Middle East Eye, 5/27/26)
  5. “In West Bank, Latest Victim of Israeli Settler Violence Shocks in a New Way” (New York Times, 5/22/26)
  6. “Likud minister says resettlement of Gaza should be on party’s official election platform” (The Times of Israel, 5/26/26)
  7. “Smotrich’s Bid for Political Survival Relies on Bribing Israeli Settlers” (Haaretz, 5/28/26)
  8. “Israel Has Physically Divided Gaza With Over 25 Kilometers of Earthen Barriers” (Drop Site, 5/25/26)

 

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week.

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

September 6, 2024

  1. Settler Terrorism & Sanctions
  2. Operation “Summer Camps” and the Expansion of Israel’s War Against Palestinians
  3. Bonus Reads

Settler Terrorism & Sanctions

Settlers have continued to terrorize Palestinians across the West Bank. Over the past few days settlers have been documented:

  • Raiding the village of Qaryut (near Nablus) and setting fields on fire (Sept. 6). The settlers, accompanied by soldiers, clashed with locals during which time a 13-year old girl was shot and killed in her bedroom, reportedly by Israeli military forces;
  • On the same day (Sep. 6th) an American-Turkish citizen, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, was shot in the head when Israeli forces and settlers opened fire on a protest in Beitar;
  • Torching cars in the villages of Deir Dibwan and Khirbet Abu Falah, leaving graffiti indicating it was a “price tag” attack;

Settlers continue perpetrating unabated and escalating violence despite the expanding number of sanctions on settlers by foreign governments and bodies. In its new report on settler violence, the International Crisis Group calls on foreign governments not only to continue expanding sanctions on violent settlers and entitities, but to accompany those sanctions with curbing arms sales to Israel.

One country continuing to expand sanctions is the U.S., which is also under continued civil society pressure to continue doing so. On August 28th the U.S. government announced two new sanction targets: the Israeli settler group Hashomer Yosh, and Yitzhak Levi Filant – an Israeli who serves as the civilian security coordinator for the Yitzhar settlement. Both are accused by the U.S. government of being responsible for violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The sanctions on the Hashomer Yosh (“The Guardian of Judea and Samaria”)  organization is particularly notable because it is funded by the Israeli government, and its executives are affiliated with Israeli officials Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. In response to the U.S. sanctions, the group even defended its actions by asserting that it coordinates its activities with the government. +972 Magazine further revealed that the organization has received funding from the U.S.-based Central Fund of Israel between 2015-2019. The group is identified by Palestinian activists in the South Hebron Hills as the “number one” group behind settler terrorism, which led to the coerced displacement of the Khirbet Zanuta community earlier this year. For more on this organization, see Peace Now’s reporting.

Yitzhak Levi Filant serves as the civilian security coordinator for the Yitzhar settlement According to DAWN, Filant has participated in or directed “violent assaults, shootings, threats at gunpoint, arson, and property destruction targeting Palestinian civilians between October 2019 and February 2024…Most recently, on February 17, 2024, Filant and other settlers set up a makeshift roadblock outside the village of Asira al-Qibliya and forcibly removed three Palestinian civilians from a car, assaulted them, and threatened to burn the vehicle if they returned.”

In addition to the new U.S. sanctions, Haaretz reports that the European Union Foreign Minister Josep Borell will ask members to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir. The EU would have to vote unanimously to impose sanctions, though individual member states can proceed with sanctions independent of EU consensus. The settler-run Arutz Sheva outlet reports that EU members have already promised Israeli diplomats that they will veto the sanctions.

Operation “Summer Camps” and the Expansion of Israel’s War Against Palestinians

The Israeli military’s operation “Summer Camps” has lasted 10 days so far, during which at least 30 Palestinians have been killed and terrorized the West Bank cities of Jenin, Tulkarem, Tubas, and surrounding areas. Palestinians there have endured repeated airstrikes, constant buzzing of drones, large-scale and repetitive raids, and the destruction of infrastructure including roads, water systems and electricity grids. Israel’s operations have effectively paralyzed life across the West Bank.  The Israeli government and military say their campaign – which is the largest since the Second Intifada – is to root out resistance cells and have been spurred by the recent uptick in the use of explosives, including recent booby trapped cars and a suicide bomber.

Though there have been reports that Israeli forces withdrew from Jenin and Tulkarem on September 6th, Israel Hayom has previously reported that the Israeli government is planning for a long-term, large-scale military operation across the whole West Bank – with Hebron being the next target. Other reports suggest the Israeli government is moving to designate the entire West Bank as an active combat zone, no longer a secondary front of its war on Gaza. Israeli Defense Minister Gallant urged extensive military campaigns in the West Bank, saying “we [Israel] are mowing the lawn, [but] the moment will also come when we will pull out the roots, that must be done.

In Jenin and Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, Palestinians were trapped in their homes unable to leave for days. Israel has also shot at Palestinian ambulances and obstructed their ability to reach injured people or even respond to emergency calls not related to Israel’s incursion. The Palestinian Red Crescent told Haaretz that it took 8 hours for an ambulance to reach and transport a patient for her dialysis treatment – which the hospital later suspended because they did not have enough consistent electricity to run the machines. A resident of Jenin told the New York Times:

“…this is the first time we see this kind of brutality…There is no humanity. They uprooted the trees, broke the buildings. The sewer mains meters under the ground, they ripped them up. The electricity, the water — they didn’t leave anything untouched.”

Another Jenin resident told +972 Magazine reporter Mariam Barghouti:

“What do you think they’re doing? They’re pushing for escalation so that they can fully depopulate us..They’re making life for us unbearable…What this does is naturally push us toward confrontation, and when we do, the Israeli military further intensifies its abusive practices.”

The Haaretz Editorial Board ominously warns:

“​​Ten days ago, the army intensified the combat and launched Operation Summer Camps, which is currently underway. The reins have been loosened and the army is now operating like it does in Gaza. At least 38 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including at least nine minors. The destruction sown by the army in the refugee camps resembles the destruction in Gaza. These have always been futile operations whose only result, in the absence of a political plan, is pushing West Bank residents further into despair and toward armed struggle. The minister of the West Bank, Bezalel Smotrich, and the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, under Netanyahu’s leadership and with the army’s participation, are doing everything they can to open another front in addition to the ones that are already aflame. They will soon get their wish.”

Bonus Reads

  1. “‘This is a war’: FM urges Gaza-style temporary evacuation of Palestinians in West Bank” (The Times of Israel)
  2. “Inside the Movement to Settle Southern Lebanon” (Jewish Currents)
  3. “Shin Bet Chief Warns PM and Ministers: Jewish Terror Is Jeopardizing Israel’s Existence“ (Haaretz)
  4. “Israeli settlers are seizing Palestinian land under cover of war – they hope permanently” (BBC)
  5. “Aiding and Abetting Jewish Settler Terror: Will There Now Be Real Consequences?” (Haaretz Editorial Board)
  6. “Trump’s Israel adviser suggests diverting $1 billion from Palestinian aid to fund West Bank annexation” (Forward)