Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

June 26, 2026

1. WEST BANK: Israel Seizes Land for Outpost Legalization; Smotrich Announces Millions for Illegally Seized Ancient Pool; New Report on Israel’s Seizure of the Hasmonean Palaces; New Lightrail for Settlers?
2. STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERRORISM: Key stories this week
3. BONUS READS

---

WEST BANK

Israel Seizes Land South of Nablus to “Legalize” Givat Haroeh Outpost

Peace Now reports the Israeli Civil Administration declared over 115 acres of land belonging to the village of Sinjil, located south of Nablus, as “state land” in order to enable the “legalization” of the Givat Haroeh outpost under Israeli law. The declaration more than quadruples the size of the outpost’s boundaries, allowing for massive growth in the future and consolidating the contiguous sting of Israeli settlements in the Shilo Valley area. 

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“Netanyahu and Smotrich are determined to fight against the entire world and against the interests of Israel’s residents for the benefit of a small group of settlers who receive thousands of dunams as a gift, as if there is no political conflict to resolve. They are exploiting every moment in power to create more and more facts on the ground that will make it harder for Israel to reach peace. Today it is clear to everyone that this conflict cannot be resolved without a political agreement that includes the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, yet the Israeli government is choosing instead to make this possibility more difficult and move us further away from peace and from ending the bloodshed.”

The Israeli government approved the legalization of the Givat Haroeh outpost in 2023 as part of a Cabinet decision to legalize 10 outposts, setting in motion the legal process to do so. Givat Haroeh was known to the Israeli government to have been illegally built on land that is at least partially privately owned by Palestinians; these landowners now have 45 days to file objections to the new military seizure order.

As noted at the time, a source told Haaretz that the Israeli Cabinet chose the ten outposts for authorization specifically because they are all located in remote or isolated locations — meaning they cannot be “legalized” via expanding the borders of a nearby settlement and declaring the outposts to be merely neighborhoods of those “legal” settlements (a legal maneuver Israel has repeatedly used to expand settlements and retroactively legalize settlements). This means, among other things, that legalization of these 10 new settlements would inevitably l lead to additional land seizures for related infrastructure work.

 

Joint Report: Israel’s Seizure of Land Near Hasmonean Palaces

In new analysis, Emek Shaveh, the Palestine Solidarity Co-op and Emek Shaveh detail Israel’s recent military seizure order taking control of land near the Hasmonean Palaces, a West Bank archaeological site located on the outskirts of Jericho in Area C of the West Bank. The seizure order will allow Israel to construct a new road to the site that bypasses Jericho. 

The construction ratchets up the violent and coercive conditions facing the Kaabneh bedouin community of Ein ad-Duyuk al Tahta, which is located on land immediately adjacent to the Hasomonean palaces. The community has been subjected to increasingly violent daily settler attacks and harassment, a trend which crescendoed on February 10, 2026 when dozens of settlers carried out a pogrom against the community. Settlers attacked violently, including women and children, looted the village, and brought in a bulldozer to level 13 homes. Israeli police and military did not respond to calls from the community for intervention. The community lives now on the ruins of these homes, while Israel is pursuing the development of the Hasmonean Palaces into a major tourist attraction.

The three groups write:

“The Hasmonean Palaces are also one of several major antiquity sites that the current Minister of Heritage, Amihai Eliyahu, had defined as “anchor sites” in the plan to develop Judeo-centric archaeological theme parks across the West Bank. In July 2023, the government had allocated 20 million NIS for the development of the site into a tourist attraction. At the time it was said that the Binyamin Regional Council would operate the site. The community of Ein ad-Duyuk al-Tahta is situated in part on what Israel considers state land and in part on land privately owned by East Jerusalemite families. The area under seizure order is privately owned, but as of June 2026, the owners have not yet been located.

In recent years, a settler-led campaign, spearheaded by the NGO Guardians of Eternity, claimed deliberate destruction of “Jewish” antiquities by the Palestinians, in an attempt to push the government to expand control over West Bank sites. The Hasmonean Palaces site was often mentioned in this context. Over the years, the SOA has carried out numerous enforcement actions at the site, including stopping works, confiscating equipment, and demolishing what it defines as illegal construction.”

Dror Etkes told The Forward:

“We will see an area completely disconnected from its surroundings. Palestinians won’t be able to enter the area. Two roads [for Israelis] will lead to this area. Settlers will be very violent, it will be very restricted for the Palestinians, construction in the area [by Palestinians] will be completely banned, the construction that already exists is without a permit and a large part of it will be demolished by Israeli authorities.

It will be another national park that will tell one story — the story the Israeli radical right wants you to hear.”

Emek Shaveh’s ED Alon Arad told The Forward:

“You change the identity so that from a village on the outskirts of Jericho it becomes a palace of a dynasty. You don’t need actual settlers there, it’s enough to build an access road, put up a fence and whatever comes with tourist development-a kiosk, a parking lot, someone to guard it…You start bringing in tourists and it’s a normalizing process for people to go inside the West Bank and return to Haifa or wherever they are from. They go in and out and it was fun for them and you create the idea that this is part of Israel.”

Smotrich Announces Millions to Renovate Illegally Seized Ancient Pool Near Jericho

Haaretz reports Israel plans to invest millions of shekels in developing an illegally-sized ancient pool and archaeological site near the Petza’el settlement in the Jordan Valley. Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich announced that he allocated 3 million shekels for the development and the site.

Settlers took control over the pool just a month ago, and began renovating the site. According to Haaretz, the IDF recognizes the area as privately owned Palestinian land. One landowner told Haaretz:

“They [the settlers] diverted the water, they are swimming in the pool, they put up Israeli flags and opened a tourist site for settlers, and they do not allow anyone to approach the area or repair anything…”We have springs on land we have owned for many years, and we use them for agricultural irrigation…we have no water.”

Dror Etkes from the Kerem Navot told Haaretz that 

“trifles like Palestinian property rights do not interest the extreme and violent elements in the government. They have no problem reaching a site that settlers covet, attaching an invented history to it and looting it in the name of a historical past that has nothing behind it but a lust for plunder and nothing more.”

 

New Light Rail for Settlements?

On June 21st, the Gush Etzion Regional Council announced “the transportation revolution in the bloc continues” and that a new light rail line will connect the settlement block to Jerusalem. The press event announcing the project included an illustration of the light rail line, being held by the smiling Transportation Minister Miri Regev and Yaron Rosenthal, the head of the settlement regional council. Despite the public support for the announcement, the Israeli Department of Transportation denied the plan, saying it had not been approved or funded by the government.

STATE-BAKED SETTLER TERRORISM

Key Reads this week:

• “Israeli Settler Indicted Over West Bank Rampage That Left Eight Palestinians Wounded” (Haaretz, 6/26/26); “Yitzhar resident indicted after armed sheep search erupts into violence in Huwara, West Bank” (Jerusalem Post, 6/25/26); “Israel prosecutors charge settlers with terror offences after West Bank attack” (The New Arab, 6/26/26)
• “Former settlement chief charged with threatening Palestinians with assault rifle” (The Times of Israel, 6/25/26)
• “Israel’s Top Court Slams Police for Failing to Probe Settler Attack on Rabbi Solidarity Activist” (Haaretz, 6/25/26)
• “Israeli Soldiers Were Sent to Harass a Bedouin Community That’s Halfway to Expulsion” (Haaretz, 6/24/26)
• “Israeli former leaders and security chiefs threaten legal action over ‘Jewish terrorism’” (The Guardian, 6/24/26)
• “As settlers rampage, IDF soldiers accused of aiding violence, theft against Palestinians” (The Times of Israel, 6/26/26)
• “An Israeli Settler Shot a Disabled Palestinian Five Times. Police Quickly Labeled the Wounded Man a ‘Terrorist’” (Haaretz, 6/20/26)
• “Ethnic Cleansing 3.0: How Israel Became the Transfer State” (Gideon Levy in Haaretz, 6/25/26)

BONUS READS

1. “How the Jewish National Fund Became the Face of Israeli Expulsion” (Haaretz, 6/24/26)
2. “Chevra Kadisha Burial Society Seeks Payment From East Jerusalem Residents for Using Path to Their Homes” (Haaretz, 6/24/26)
3. “Death Penalty For Palestinians Only” (Visualizing Palestine, June 2026)
4. “IDF Eases Closures on West Bank Palestinian Town, but Keeps Key Highway Blocked” (Haaretz, 6/25/26)
5. “The Israeli right is marching under a new flag” (+972 Magazine, 6/15/26)
6. “Palestinians warn West Bank antiquities bill designed to expand Israeli control” (The Times of Israel, 6/25/26)
7. “Palestinians decry Israeli push for control over ancient West Bank sites” (Reuters, 6/25/26)
8. “Hundreds of Bedouin left homeless as Israel ramps up Naqab expulsions” (+972 Magazine, 6/24/26)

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

June 19, 2026

1. EAST JERUSALEM: Silwan Updates, Israel Seizes Church Land, New Report by Ir Amim
2. WEST BANK: Plans for 576 Units Advance, Israel OKs Settler Construction in Hebron’s H2, Doron Settlement Cornerstone Laid, IDF Clears Several Outposts
3. BONUS READS

---

EAST JERUSALEM

Court Continues Ethnic Cleansing in East Jerusalem; Final Ruling Seals Displacement of Family in Batan al-Hawa

Peace Now reports the Israeli Supreme Court has summarily rejected the final appeal of the Palestinian Sarhan family, ruling that the family must vacate their homes of more than 60 years in the Batan al-Hawa section of Silwan so that the Ateret Cohanim settler organization can take possession of it. Ateret Cohanim has used discriminatory Israeli law to carry out the mass displacement of the local Palestinian community in Silwan and other communities of East Jerusalem.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“Regrettably, there is no other term to describe this than ethnic cleansing. Settlers, with the assistance of the government and a discriminatory legal framework, are expelling an entire Palestinian community and replacing it with settlers. This is happening in Jerusalem in 2026, and it will remain a stain on the State of Israel. The government can and must stop the forced displacement of an entire community, and responsibility rests squarely on its shoulders. In its advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) explicitly addressed the discriminatory legal regime and Israel’s settlement policy in East Jerusalem, finding them to be in violation of international law.”

The Sarhan family is made up of 12 nuclear families, living in four buildings on the same plot of land; one of the buildings – a five story hose that can house up to 12 families – has already been taken over by settlers with the assistance of the state.

In Batan al-Hawa, 38 Palestinian families (numbering hundreds of people) have already been evicted from their homes and replaced with settlers. There are four more buildings scheduled to be evicted in the coming months, and still three ongoing lawsuits where Palestinian families are continuing to fight against settlers seeking their eviction.

 

JNF Targets Another Family in Silwan for Displacement

Peace Now reports the Palestinian Shaludi family has received an eviction order telling them to leave their longtime home in Silwan by June 24, 2026. The lawsuit behind their eviction was brought by the Jewish National Fund (JNF-KKL), which plans to move settlers into the home upon the family’s forcible displacement where they have lived since 1964. For more information on the legal mechanism behind this instance of displacement, see Peace Now’s reporting.

Abed Shaludi told Peace Now: 

“My parents rented this house in 1964, I was born here 55 years ago, and here my four children were born. I have memories from every corner of this house. I cannot imagine myself in another place, without this house, without the olive tree in the yard upon which I built wooden houses where I slept during summer nights. No one can give anyone the right to expel a person from his home and his land. This is an injustice and a crime.”

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“The Jewish National Fund has turned itself into the Settler National Fund and is trying to throw a destitute Palestinian family out of their home just so settlers can take over another house in a Palestinian neighborhood. This is cruelty and an ugly move of using the Absentees’ Property Law based on dubious testimonies in order to take properties from Palestinians and give them to settlers, and to destroy the delicate fabric of life in Jerusalem.”

 

Israel Raids, Takes Control of Jerusalem Patriarchate Property in Silwan

The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem reports that Israeli authorities raided its Church property in Silwan on June 15th, forcibly removing Patriarchate staff, confiscating Church property, uprooting trees, and barricading the property off with fences and gates. The Jerusalem Municipality has said that it conducted these operations on the basis of “gardening orders”, which allow the government to take control of land in order to do landscaping.

The Patriarchate filed a lawsuit to stop the work and recoup damages, asserting that the Patriarchate is the registered owner of the land, which is not only adjacent to an ancient monastery but also contains significant historical, archaeological and religious artifacts.

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court held a hearing on the matter on June 18th for a hearing, where the Jerusalem Municipality argued the land was neglected and does not recognize the Patriarchate’s ownership of the land, stating that since the land is uncultivated it is considered “state land.”  A representative of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority further told the Court that it is his intention to establish a permanent Israeli presence on the site. The Court ultimately decided not to issue an injunction, and asked the parties to continue discussions for one week.

In a June 15th statement the Patriarchate said:

“…the seizure of this private Church property, with its Christian heritage and religious significance, sets a dangerous precedent for Church rights in Jerusalem. The Patriarchate added that reliance on a municipal gardening order issued on April 18, 2019, whose term expired in April 2024, provides no lawful basis for uprooting trees, removing the lawful caretaker, sealing off Church land, or denying the Patriarchate access to its own property.

The Patriarchate stated that the events in Silwan fall within a wider pattern of escalating assaults aimed at weakening the indigenous Christian presence in the Holy Land. It noted with deep concern the rising Israeli attacks against Christians and churches amid unacceptable international tolerance. In 2024, 111 Israeli attacks or acts of violence were recorded against Christian clergy, nuns, worshippers, and church communities, including 35 attacks targeting churches, monasteries, and religious symbols.”

Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann posted:

“Let there be no doubt about what is happening here: this is the Jerusalem Municipality fronting for the settler organizations in Silwan, in a blatantly illegal attempt to seize Church properties for the benefit of the settlements in Silwan. I will not trouble you with the baseless pretext for seizing the property. I rely on the Church to do that. But this needs be said: when the biblically driven, messianic settlers of East Jerusalem covet property that happens to belong to a Church, nothing will stop the Government from using all their powers to seize that property. The vulnerable Christian communities struggling to maintain their communal presence, and secure their properties, are expendable. Acceptable collateral damage. Unless they happen to be end-of-days evangelical rapture mongers.”

Peace Now said in a statement:

“Jerusalem is a city of profound importance to three religions and to billions of people around the world. The State of Israel should serve as a model of governance that respects all faiths and affords dignity to all of Jerusalem’s residents. Instead, in recent years, Israeli authorities have increasingly pushed the city’s non-Jewish presence aside, not only Palestinians, but also Christians.

The takeover of Church land in Silwan is part of a broader effort, led by settler organizations, to gain control over the entire Wadi Rababa and Silwan area and transform it from a Palestinian space into an Israeli one. The Jerusalem Municipality and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority have become instruments of the settler ideological agenda.”

 

New Report from Ir Amim: “‘Greater Jerusalem’ – Expulsion and Annexation”

​​In a new report entitled, “‘Greater Jerusalem” – Expulsion and Annexation”’ Ir Amim provides a comprehensive documentation of the settlement expansion, construction of outposts, construction of settler infrastructure, and the escalating state and settler violence against Palestinian communities that have propelled Israel’s accelerated annexation of the “Greater Jerusalem” area. The report documents how Israel has dramatically reshaped the West Bank area around Jerusalem over the past three years, and argues to understand the many mechanisms for Israel’s forcible transfer of Palestinian communities as a key tool in its annexation drive. 

Ir Amim writes:

“These developments are part of a broader Israeli government agenda across the West Bank: expanding Israeli territorial contiguity while uprooting and pushing Palestinians into disconnected enclaves within an increasingly fragmented Palestinian space. This strategy is unfolding throughout the West Bank, but it is especially visible around Jerusalem.

[Thie report] details the cumulative system of pressure being used to make life unsustainable for Palestinian communities, including land confiscation, settlement and outpost expansion, demolition orders and denial of building permits, military closure orders, new permit regimes, settler and military violence, severe restrictions on movement, and the closure of entire areas to Palestinian access.”

Read the full report and/or executive summary here.

 

WEST BANK

Israel Approves 576 New Settlement Units Across West Bank

On June 17th the Israeli High Planning Council approved the construction of 576 new settlement units across the West Bank. the approvals include:

• Mitzpe Yericho: 456 new settlements units were approved for the Mitzpe Yericho settlement, located just west of the Palestinian city of Jericho in the Jordan Valley. This plan will enable thousands of new settlers.
• Karnei Shomron: 120 new settlements units were approved for the Karnei Shomron settlement, located in the northern West Bank, east of the Palestinian village of Qalqilya. Israel has openly declared its intention to continue expanding settlements in this area with the stated goal of bringing 1 million settlers to live in the area.
• Approval of a new dormitory for yeshiva students in the heart of historic Hebron, see the next section for more details.

 

After Seizing Planning Authority, Israel Approves Construction of Dormitory in Historic Hebron

Peace Now reports that on June 16th the Israeli High Planning Council approved the construction of a new dormitory for settlers on Al-Shalala street, located in the heart of Hebron’s historic market (the Kasbah) and which has become the main route for Palestinians to access Hebron’s Old City and the Ibrahimi Mosque since Shuhada Street has been sealed off to Palestinians. The dormitory will be built above a building called the “Romano House”, which the government gave to settlers in September 2025 and have since become a religious school (Shavei Hevron yeshiva). 

This new construction approval comes just one week after the Israeli Higher Planning Council seized authority over Israeli settlement construction and planning in Hebron H2 area and Jewish heritage sites there (the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs), stripping the Palestinian-run Hebron Municipality of the administrative powers assigned to it in the 1997 Hebron Protocol (which was signed by Israel). The Israeli Security Cabinet reportedly approved the assumption of these authorities, though 

Israeli Minister Smotrich posted defiantly on X that he “canceled the Hebron Agreement.,” prompting the Israeli Foreign Ministry to put out a statement saying the Protocols have not been annulled but confirmed Israel had taken control of administrative powers from the Hebron Municipality. Nonetheless, while celebrating the opening of the Doron settlement, Smotrich said in a speech: 

“Yesterday we annulled the Hebron Accords…For many years, one of the most absurd clauses of the Oslo accords remained in place, in which authority over the Jewish settlement in Hebron and the holy sites were dependent on the terrorist municipality of Hebron. Yesterday we put an end to that.”

Issa Amro, a prominent Palestinian activist living in Hebron, released a video statement responding to these developments.

 Peace Now said in a statement: 

“The government is racing toward annexation and apartheid. Hebron is the most extreme example of the regime Israel imposes in the West Bank, under which Israeli Jews enjoy rights while Palestinians are denied them. It is a city where entire streets are closed to Palestinians so that settlers can move through them freely. The decision to strip Palestinians of planning authority and to build a large new settlement compound in the heart of Hebron’s Kasbah is a microcosm of the annexation being implemented by the government—one that is condemning us to a future of conflict and bloodshed.”

 

Doron Settlement in South Hebron Hills Opens

Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz participated in a cornerstone-laying ceremony at the new Doron settlement in the South Hebron Hills. Pictures show Smotrich planting a tree and raising a flag over the site of the future settlement. Makeshift structures were later brought to the site, which had been previously cleared, including several caravans, water tanks and equipment.

The ceremony punctuates the settlers’ takeover of the land and continued harassment of nearby Palestinian communities. The settlement is located on the lands of the Dura village, on Mount Tarousa. Last week Palestinians filmed the IDF escorting settlers and their equipment onto the lands.

 

IDF Clears Several Outposts

Overnight on June 18th, the IDF cleared settlers and their illegal structures from several outposts, including:

• Tel Talpiot near the Shiloh settlement in the northern West Bank;
• Kochav Yehuda, a farming outpost near the Efrat settlement;
• Shaagat Yehuda, a farming outpost established months ago by violent settlers on the lands of Tayasir in the northern West Bank. This is Area A under the Oslo Accords. A CNN news crew was attacked by IDF soldiers when they were attempting to document the violent settler attacks on Palestinians in Tayasir.
• An encampment near the Esh Kodesh settlement.

 

BONUS READS

1. “Government to provide 50-shekel daily stipends for hundreds of hilltop youth – report” (The Times of Israel, 6/15/26)
2. “Israel Is Conducting a Systematic Campaign of Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in the West Bank” (Ehud Olmert in Haaretz, 6/18/26)
3. “Israel Must Choose Life, Not the West Bank Settlements” (Haaretz Editorial, 6/17/26)
4. “The Jewish Ku Klux Klan Has a Calculated Plan for the Palestinians” (Haaretz, 6/15/26)
5. “The Israeli State Armed Settlers With Thousands of Guns. Now It Can’t Control Them” (Haaretz, 6/16/26)
6. “Israel took control of more land from its neighbors since Oct. 7 than it has in decades” (The Times of Israel, 6/18/26)
7. “Netanyahu gov’t doubled number of Gush Etzion Jewish communities” (JNS, 6/18/26)

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

June 12, 2026

1. WEST BANK: Israel Expediting NIS 1 Billion to 61 Outposts; Israel Allocates Land to Outpost in Beit Sahour; Israel Building Permanent Military Base in Jenin; News on New Outposts; Amnesty Report Alleges Ethnic Cleansing
2. STATE BACKED SETTLER VIOLENCE: European Countries Announce New; United Nations Says State is Complicit in Settler Terror
3. BONUS READS

---

WEST BANK

Bibi Slows Push to Expedite Funds for 61 Outposts

Early this week the Israeli press widely reported that the Israeli Cabinet was scheduled to meet on June 11th to approve a $1billion NIS  ($337 million) package to fund extensive development projects for 61 outposts, which remain illegal under Israeli law (though the government has already announced its intent to “legalize” these outposts, that process has not been completed). Following significant international attention, Netanyahu moved consideration of the funding to a closed-door Security Cabinet meeting on June 14th.

According to reports, the package would fund the construction of temporary residences at the outpost locations, to include 15 residential caravans and two caravans designated for public-use buildings. It would also fund significant investments into permanent infrastructure for the outposts even before they are legalized, including roads, sewage systems land clearing, and water infrastructure. The package also funds new government positions called “community coordinators” which will work to bring settlers to these locations, assisting them with moving and settling there.

While the specific outposts are not clear, it is reported to be outposts that do not have any significant population size, possibly empty sites. And the package will fund development of these outposts located in Areas A and B of the West Bank, and in strategic areas that carve up the West Bank and establish Israeli contiguity between settlements and through to the Jordan Valley.

Peace Now explains the background and comments:

“Since taking office in December 2022, the government has approved the establishment of 103 new settlements. Some of these already existed as “neighborhoods” of existing settlements, while others were established as unauthorized outposts; the decision is expected to facilitate their formal legalization. The remainder consists of dozens of settlements that have not yet been established or currently contain only agricultural outposts with limited infrastructure. The planned NIS 1 billion investment is intended to support their development. According to one report, the funding relates to 61 new settlements…

It should be noted that under the laws applicable in the West Bank, the construction of buildings—including temporary structures and caravans—requires approved planning schemes and building permits issued by the competent authorities. In the case of the new settlements approved by the government, most currently lack approved planning schemes, and some do not even have available “state land” that could be allocated for planning purposes. Consequently, it appears that the government intends to bypass planning and construction regulations, potentially through the use of military orders that allow permits to be granted for sites deemed to be of “national importance,” or through other legal mechanisms.

 Peace Now: The government is on a reckless pre-election sprint to raid the public purse in order to create facts on the ground that will leave a scorched-earth reality for the next government. It is no coincidence that the Chief of Staff warned that the establishment of so many settlements would harm security and could bring the IDF to the point of collapse. October 7 proved that the right-wing approach has failed: the conflict cannot be “managed,” and the Palestinians cannot be “defeated.” Israel must reach a political solution and diplomatic agreement, but instead the government is only sinking us deeper into the mire and condemning us to many more years of bloody conflict.”

 

Israel Allocates Land for New Settlement in Beit Sahour

The Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ) reports that the Israeli government has declared 116 dunams of land to be included in the jurisdiction of the new “Yitzav” settlement, located on land belonging to the Palestinian town of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem. The designated land includes the former military compound that settlers initially (and illegally) first established the Yitzav outpost just four months ago, but it also includes surrounding lands and part of a public park that belongs to the municipality of Beit Sahour

ARIJ estimates about 13 settler families currently live there.

 

Israel Building a Permanent Military Base on Palestinian Land

Haaretz reports that Israel is building a new permanent miltary base near the Palestinian city of Jenin, marking the first time since the signing of the Oslo Accords that the Israeli has built a permanent military installment in Area A of the West Bank.

Breaking the Silence explains the how this is part and parcel of the settlement movement and Israel’s annexation of the West Bank:

“For more than a year, the IDF has been conducting an operation in the West Bank dubbed “Iron Wall.” As part of the operation, the IDF has repeatedly raided the Palestinian refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams. In many ways, it resembled practices we’ve seen in Gaza.

45,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced and, for the most part, are still not allowed to return. The IDF demolished entire residential blocks and loosened rules of engagement, permitting opening fire at anyone who was deemed to be “messing with the ground”…

The operation’s declared goal, as usual, is “strengthening security.” Yet against this backdrop, the Israeli government approved the establishment of new settlements in the Jenin area, some of them planned just a few kilometres from the refugee camp.

Settling civilians near what the IDF considers a terror stronghold while conducting a military operation there is hardly a recipe for their safety. No surprises here. The operational logic in the West Bank mostly works the other way around.

First, a settlement is deliberately established near a Palestinian village or city to fragment the West Bank, disrupt Palestinian life, and grab land. Then, because this settlement must be protected, it draws a heavy military presence into the area.

The planned base in Jenin is another step toward the creeping annexation of the West Bank. The goal is to concentrate Palestinians in shrinking, disconnected enclaves. Working hand in hand with settlers, the IDF advances this apartheid project under the banner of “security.””

 

Reports on New Outposts

There were several reports regarding new outposts over the past week, including:

• Settlers moved in more caravans to a new outpost recently established on the lands of Taybeh village.
• Settlers moved several mobile homes onto land belonging to the village of Jourat ash‑Sham’ah, south of Bethlehem. This is the second outpost built on lands belonging to this village in the past month.
• Settlers were documented clearing land near an ancient church in the Palestinian village of Aboud.
• A new settler outpost was spotted on the lands of the Deir Abu Meshal northwest of Ramallah.
• Construction work is being done to build a new road to an outpost on the land of Abu Njeim, southeast of Bethlehem.

In addition, the IDF attempted to clear out an outpost near the Ma’ale Amos settlement located south of Bethlehem, but were met with violent settlers attempting to stop the enforcement. Three soldiers were reportedly wounded.

 

Amnesty International: Israel is Ethnically Cleansing Bedouin & Herding Communities from the West Bank

Amnesty International released a new report entitled, “Erasing Anything Palestinian: Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing of West Bank Bedouin And Herding Communities” documenting Israel’s systematic erasure – by settlers and by the state – of Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities from Area C of the occupied West Bank. The report accuses Israel of committing the crime against humanity of forcible transfer by uprooting, dispossessing and driving Palestinian communities from their land.

Amnesty writes:

“This report lays bare the scale and severity of the ethnic cleansing campaign targeting these communities, carried out in a context of apartheid and unlawful occupation and against the backdrop of an ongoing genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip.

The report also demonstrates—contrary to what too many in the international community suggest—that the campaign is not the product of “rogue” settlers, settlers’ organizations, or “extremist” government ministers.

In other words, settler violence is not an aberration but an integral part of an organized state policy.

The report demonstrates that the ethnic cleansing campaign in Area C is state-sanctioned, state-driven and state-implemented; it seeks to accelerate the Israeli government’s annexation agenda and settlement expansion through war crimes and crimes against humanity.

As such, the report’s conclusions demand that the international community fully confront and name the Israeli state-driven project and act decisively to prevent the destruction of Palestinian communities and the annexation of the West Bank.”

 

STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERROR

United Nations Accuses IDF of Enabling Settler Terrorism

A new report by the  United Nations’ Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory asserts that the Israeli government is complicit in enabling settler terrorism via its financial and military support for settlers. The report specifically documents that Israeli security forces routinely accompany settlers during their attacks and act as a shield for their violence against Palestinians and their property.

 

France Bans Smotrich; New EU Sanctions Target Entities

Six European countries led by the United Kingdom announced a new round of sanctions targeting six settler entities and one settler alleged to be involved in illegal outpost activity and violence against Palestinians. In addition, France has banned Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich along with four leaders of settler groups and 21 individual settlers from entering the country. Settlers have said the sanctions are a badge of honor.

The sanctioned entities and individuals are:

1. The Farms Union: which provides financial and organizational support to illegal farming outposts and residential outposts linked to violence and the forcible displacement of Palestinians.
2. Ahavat Gilad (“Love of Gilead”): serves as a financial conduit for the Farms Union, channelling donations to settler outposts including those associated with violence against Palestinians.
3. Ari Yshag: a fundraising organization that supports illegal settler outposts known to be violent, including Hilltop Youth outposts.
4. Artzenu (“Our Land”): a group that raises funds for tactical military equipment for armed settler squads. It also deploys volunteers to farm outposts and settlement outposts in the West Bank.
5. Shivat Zion Lerigvey Admata (“Return of Zion to its Land,”): the registered legal vehicle through which Artzenu’s financial activities are conducted, channelling donations to outposts linked to serious human rights abuses 
6. Eyal Hari Yehuda Company: a construction and demolition company that allows settlers to use its equipment to destroy Palestinian land and property, and perpetrate violence against Palestinians. The company is owned by brothers Yinon and Itamar Yehuda Levy. Yinon has previously been sanctioned, and is responsible for the murder of Awdah Hathaleen in Umm al-Khair last year.
7. Itamar Yehuda Levi: owner of EYAL HARI YEHUDA COMPANY LTD (also designated).

 

Bonus Reads

1. “Palestinians Attacked in West Bank Say IDF Troops Stood Idly by as Settlers Rampaged” (Haaretz, 6/7/26)
2. “Before the Settler Abused the Dog, He Beat the Palestinian Family Who Owns It” (Haaretz, 6/6/26)
3. “Importing Occupation: Europe’s Complicity in Palestinian Dispossession through Settlement Agricultural Trade” (Global Echo, June 2026)
4. “Welcome to the 60th Year of Israel’s Occupation of the West Bank” (Michael Sfard in Haaretz, 6/10/26)
5. “Left-wing U.K. Leaders Slam Israeli Real Estate Event, Alleging West Bank Home Sales” (Haaretz, 6/11/26)

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

June 5, 2026

1. WEST BANK: E-1 Update; High Council Advances Plans for 2,162 New Units; Archaeology Annexation Bill is Stopped for Now; Tax Break for Settlers; WZO Eases Land Purchase Rules
2. Further Reading

---

WEST BANK

E-1 Update

As previously reported, tenders for the construction of the E-1 settlement were scheduled to be published/opened on June 1st – – but as of reporting the tenders have not been published. Terrestrial Jerusalem founder and Jerusalem expert Danny Seidemann cautions that delays are normal and alarm should remain high:

“In the past, this [delay] would be very much in line with Netanyahu’s modus operandi: bluster, but at the last moment make E-1 go away without leaving fingerprints. However, with Smotrich breathing down his neck and elections approaching, Netanyahu will be called out if he silently freezes E-1. He is not likely to do that.”

On June 3rd, 85 members of the U.S. Congress penned a letter to Secretary of State Rubio urging action to stop the construction of E-1. On  the same day, a group of EU representatives visited Khan al-Ahmar, the bedouin community that stands to be forcibly transferred from their land by Israel in order to enable the construction of the E-1 settlement. At the United Nations, the Arab Group (an official regional and political coalition composed of 22 member states representing the Arab nations), issued a statement touching on many Israeli annexationist moves including E-1, urging strong opposition and increased pressure on the Israeli government to back off.

 

2,162 New Settlement Units Advanced

On June 3rd, the Israeli High Planning Council advanced the construction of 2,162 new settlement units, including plans for two new settlements. The plans advanced this week were:

• Hamivesher (a new settlement): The Council approved for deposit a plan for the construction of 234 new settlement units in the outpost of Hamivesher, which would authorize its as a legal (under Israeli law only) settlement. Until now, the Hamivesher outpost has been laundered through the planning process as a “neighborhood” of the Kiryat Arba settlement but is more properly understood as its own settlement. The Hamivesher settlement is detached from Kiryat Arba, located some ~800 meters north.

• Gvaot: The Council gave final approval for the construction of 1,006 new units in the Gvaot settlement, located west of Bethlehem. There are only a few dozen families currently living in the Gvaot settlement, so this plan represents a massive expansion and its transformation into a more established and urban settlement. Gvaot was built illegally by settlers and initially laundered as a “neighborhood” of the Alon Shvut settlement despite being detached from it. The government authorized Gvaot as an independent settlement in March 2025.
• Har Bracha: The Council approved a plan for 922 new units in the Har Bracha settlement, located south of Nablus. If given final approval, this plan will triple the size of Har Bracha, which is known to be particularly violent towards surrounding Palestinian communities.

Celebrating the approvals, Bezalel Smotrich said:

“This is not just a planning step, but a national development that solidifies our hold on the territory, strengthens Israel’s security, and establishes clear facts that prevent the establishment of an Arab terrorist state in the heart of the country.”

 

Bibi Stops (for now) Annexation-Via-Archaeology Bill

It’s widely reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu has intervened to stop the advancement of a bill that would annex heritage and archaeological sites across the West Bank and Gaza. Emek Shaveh warns the bill is not dead yet:

“it is important to emphasize that the bill has yet to be withdrawn (a procedure that we will demand). And as long as it remains within the legislative process, it can be revived relatively quickly. Since it has already passed its first reading, a future government or coalition could apply legislative continuity and resume the process from the point at which it was halted. In practical terms, the bill remains very close to being ready for second and third readings.”

 

Israel Seizes Herodium Archaeological Site & Surrounding Land

The Israeli Civil Administration issued an expropriation order for the Herodium archaeological site – which Israel had already seized and declared an Israeli national park – and surrounding areas, totalling 320 dunams (80 acres). The Herodium site is located on a hilltop south east of Bethlehem, in Area C, surrounded by settlements. This is at least the third archaeological annexation of the year, following the expropriation at the Nabi Samwil site last week and at the Sebastia site in February 2026.

Peace Now said in a statement:

”The government is trying to exploit every moment before the elections to create additional facts on the ground that will advance the full annexation of the West Bank. Tourist and archaeological sites constitute another form of settlement. Their purpose is not only to seize extensive areas of land but also to shape public consciousness, marginalize the Palestinian connection to the land, and transform this country into a land exclusively for Jews, both physically and in terms of heritage. This policy condemns us to many more years of a painful and bloody conflict that can only be resolved through a compromise over this land, which is precious to both Israelis and Palestinians.”

 

Tax Break for Settlers aka Looting Public Funds for Settlers

This week by a vote of 32-23 the Knesset passed a bill that grants a 7% tax break (capped at NIS 10,000 per year) to residents of 58 specified settlements – most of which are settlements which support, based on voting data, Bezalel Smotrich’s political party (an earlier version of the bill sought to benefit all settlements, but was shrunk to 58 settlements when the cost was estimated at 450million NIS annually). Ostensibly, the 58 settlements were selected based on distance from Israel’s Separation Barrier and the use for armored school buses for children.

Peace Now – which said the move is “a brazen move of looting public funds” – said in a statement: 

“The proposal to grant tax benefits to settlements is brazen greed on the part of settlement leaders. No sector in the country receives more benefits and public investment than the settlers, and there is no justification whatsoever for adding tax breaks that would simply plunder the public treasury for the benefit of a small minority within the government’s political base.”

 

WZO Eases Rules on Land Purchases

The World Zionist Organization recently announced that it will begin allowing settlers to buy a second residential plot of land. Until now, the WZO closely controlled land management and most settlers do not own the land on which their houses are situated, instead they have long term leases on the land via the WZO.

 

Bonus Reads

1. “Israeli Settlers Wound Three Palestinians in Attack Near West Bank’s Hebron, Medics Say” (Haaretz, 6/5/26)
2. “Seven Palestinians Wounded in West Bank Settler Raid, Some by IDF Fire” (Haaretz, 5/30/26)
3. “Digitally annexing the West Bank: Israel moves its theft of Palestinian land online” (Mondoweiss, 6/3/26)
4. “Who Will Stop Smotrich, if Not The Hague?” (Haaretz, 6/3/26)

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 & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

May 22, 2026

1. WEST BANK: Smotrich Orders Khan Al-Ahmar Demolition; Knesset Fast-Tracks Annexation-via-Archaeology; Smotrich Leads Settlers to Joseph’s Tomb
2. EAST JERUSALEM: Flag March and Related Government Action
3. STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERRORISM: EU Sanctions
4. BONUS READS

---

WEST BANK

Smotrich Orders Khan al-Ahmar Cleared, as E-1 Plan Advances

On May 19th, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that he had ordered preparations for the forcible displacement and demolition of the Khan al-Ahmar, the bedouin village located just east of Jerusalem in an area that needs to be cleared in order for the construction of the E-1 settlement. The destruction of the community is expected to move forward in the coming days, as the publication of tenders for the construction of the E-1 settlements is scheduled for June 1st and bids will close on June 6th.

Amnesty International says that, if implemented, the forcible transfer of Khan al-Ahmar is a war crime.  Smotrich said he issued the order after the International Criminal Court notified him that it was prepared to issue an arrest warrant against him, along with National Security Minister Ben Gvir, Settlement Minister Orit Strock, and two IDF officials.

The E-1 settlement will see the construction of 3,401 new settlement units on a site located northeast of Jerusalem that is home to several Palestinian bedouin communities, comprising 3,000 people, including about 300 residents of Khan al-Ahmar. The residents of Khan al-Ahmar have lived and worked on this land since the 1950s – when the community was forced to leave their land in the Negev during the 1948 war. There has been a decades long drama over the Israeli government’s plans to construct the E-1 settlement, which has long been held as a red-line for Israel that the international community had been willing to step up to maintain.

Terrestrial Jerusalem’s Danny Seidemann explains:

“Why Khan al-Ahmar? Israel has delineated the area under its exclusive control in the occupied West Bank between Jerusalem and the Jordan River Valley. It has consolidated its hold by large and medium-sized settlements, and “illegal” outposts. It has neutralized the Palestinian presence, and has seamlessly integrated the area into pre-1967. Multi-lane highways, tunnels, and bridges have erased the Green Line.
There is little doubt that this reality is tantamount to de facto annexation.

If that be so, why is Israel so obsessed with the displacement of the few hundred 

Bedouin of Khan al-Ahmar that it is willing to bear universal opprobrium in order to evacuate the hamlet?

The answer is simple: because Khan al-Ahmar and similar Bedouin encampments are the final obstacle standing in the way of de jure annexation.

In 1967, Israel annexed East Jerusalem. It did so without extending Israeli citizenship to the Palestinians residing in the annexed areas. The Palestinians of East Jerusalem enjoy certain personal entitlements, but no political rights.”

Balasan Initiative explains:

“The evacuation of Khan Al-Ahmar violates the International Criminal Law (ICL) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL), which prohibit the forcible transfer of protected persons from territory under occupation…particularly in light of the retaliatory intentions of Smotrich following the ICC arrest warrant proceedings, the planned evacuation of Khan Al-Ahmar remains unlawful, unjustified, and incompatible with international humanitarian law. 

Hence, alongside the humanitarian consequences that would result from the demolition of the village and the forcible displacement of its residents, the destruction of Khan Al-Ahmar must also be understood within the broader framework of territorial fragmentation and settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territory. The village’s strategic location within the E-1 corridor renders its removal politically and geographically significant, as it would facilitate the territorial linkage between Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem while further isolating East Jerusalem from the remainder of the West Bank. Such measures undermine the contiguity and viability of a future Palestinian state and reinforce irreversible demographic and geographic changes on the ground.”

Peace Now said in a statement:

“Minister Smotrich seeks to take revenge on The Hague and the international community at the expense of one of the most vulnerable communities, which for years has struggled simply for the right to live on the small piece of land in its possession. The expulsion of Khan al-Ahmar is part of a broader government plan to take control of the entire central West Bank area, build in E1, and remove all Palestinian communities from the region. This is a cynical and destructive plan that could devastate the prospects for future peace and a resolution of the conflict, as part of Smotrich and his allies’ annexation agenda.”

Knesset Fast-Tracks Annexation-via-Archaeology

On May 20th, the Israeli Knesset passed a bill allocating $86 million (NIS 250 million) for developing archaeological and heritage sites across the West Bank. In addition to this huge budget investment, on May 11th the Knesset began fast-tracking a separate bill that would outright annex heritage, antiquities, and archaeological sites to Israel by bringing them under direct Israeli civilian control. That bill is being finalized by the relevant Knesset Committee and expected to be ready for its second  and third readings and vote on Sunday, May 24th. For further information on the bill, see this detailed paper opposing the bill by Emek Shaveh.

If approved, the annexation bill will create a new Israeli civilian authority under the Heritage Ministry given exclusive authority to develop and manage West Bank heritage sites, taking those authorities away from the Israeli Defense Ministry. The new body in the Heritage Ministry would have the power to acquire or expropriate land for the purpose of protecting, conserving, researching, and developing heritage sites. In an added absurdity, Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu recently announced he has selected Esther Schreiber as the next head of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), that is in despite of the fact Schreiber has no background in archaeology and lacks experience in managing large public institutions. 

Emek Shaveh said:

“The political appointment at the Israel Antiquities Authority and the proposed Heritage Authority Law for the West Bank are two sides of the same coin: transforming archaeology from a tool of research into an instrument of propaganda in the service of annexation, dispossession, and a messianic ideology.”

The Haaretz Editorial Board writes:

“The proposed new agency will be another tool by which the government will be able to abuse its Palestinian subjects in the West Bank (it will have the authority to expropriate land) and to harness archaeology to the needs of the settlers. The bill also amounts to annexation, in violation of international law. The bill, like Schreiber’s appointment, was advanced despite overwhelming opposition from Israel’s archaeological community, which already faces boycotts abroad that hinder its operation. It can only be hoped that the government is replaced before Eliyahu & Co. also manage to destroy Israeli archaeology.”

Smotrich Leads Settler Raid on Joseph’s Tomb

On May 14th Finance Minister Smotrich led a group of over 100 settlers on a trip to Joseph’s Tomb for morning prayers, the heritage site in Nablus as Israel expands the scope and scale of Israeli presence there. Smotrich promised to control the site and said during his visit:

“Our presence here at Joseph’s Tomb, in broad daylight, is a clear statement: the people of Israel are returning home to all parts of their land…Joseph’s Tomb is living testimony to the inseparable connection between the people of Israel and their land.”

As a reminder, Joseph’s Tomb is a holy site for Jews and cultural site for Palestinians, located in the heart of Nablus. The tomb is located within Area A of the West Bank (where Israel does not, under the Oslo Accords, have direct control). However, Joseph’s Tomb is one of two sites in Area A which the Oslo Accords stipulate are under the control of the Israeli military. As such, it has been a perennial flashpoint, largely due to deliberately provocative actions by settlers.

In January 2026, Israeli Defense Minister Katz agreed to allow settlers to perform morning prayers at Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus for the first time in 25 years, and on January 29th, Israeli ministers and settler leaders led a group of 1,500 people under a heavy security escort to Joseph’s Tomb. In 2000 during the Second Intifada, Israeli officials restricted Israeli access to the site to nighttime hours in hopes of minimizing conflict.

 

EAST JERUSALEM

Israel to Expropriate Land/Homes/Business on Chain Gate Road

Ir Amim reports that on May 17th – Jerusalem Day – the Israeli government approved the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee tasked with advancing land expropriation of dozens of properties along the Chain Gate road in the Old City. The move would displace generations-old Palestinian family homes and businesses  in the Muslim Quarter. Ir Amim explains:

“The decision refers to a 1968 land expropriation order for an area within Jerusalem’s Old City, which served as the basis for the expropriation of properties in the Jewish Quarter and the displacement of its Palestinian residents at the time. According to the new government decision, the expropriation order issued 58 years ago was never fully implemented. This specifically concerns properties along the southern side of Chain Gate Street (Bab al-Silsila Street), a strategic and central corridor along the seamline between the Muslim and Jewish Quarters that connects Jaffa Gate directly to Al-Aqsa/Temple Mount. See exaction location on map below.

The government now appears poised to advance the expropriation of these properties under a decades-old order, with the new committee tasked with devising the mechanism for its implementation. The committee has been instructed to complete an action plan within 12 months.”

The Flag March

As in years past, thousands of radical Israeli settlers staged a violent rampage – the “Flag March” – through the Old City on Jerusalem Day, bringing destruction and chaos with them as they attempted to show dominance and control over the city. As usual, the crowds shouted “Death to Arabs” and “May your village burn,” and gangs of young settlers were filmed attacking shopkeepers and one Israeli journalist.

Israel Ministers Smotrich and Ben Gvir joined the parade this year, with Ben Gvir leading a large group into the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound – waiving the Israeli flag in front of the Dome of the Rock. Ir Amim explained the significance of this event:

“The erosion of the status quo at Al-Aqsa cannot be separated from the Flag March itself. In the lead-up to the march, we warned about the growing influence of Temple movements and the support they receive from organizers and participants alike. Throughout the march, countless shirts and flags called for the construction of a Third Temple — in even greater numbers than in previous years — alongside signs reading: “This is not Al Aqsa, this is the Temple Mount!” and “You wanted a massacre? You’ll get a Nakba!” Meanwhile, in the markets of the Old City, Palestinian shop owners were forced by police to close their businesses to clear the area for marchers. Year after year, the daily lives and livelihoods of Palestinian residents are disrupted and undermined to facilitate the march’s passage through the Damascus Gate plaza and Muslim Quarter.

Throughout the march, racist and violent chants filled the streets, including: “May your village burn,” “May your name be erased,” and “Slaughter Nablus.” Palestinian residents and solidarity activists were assaulted, while shops and property were vandalized — all under heavy police presence and with little meaningful intervention. Many Palestinian residents were forced to remain inside their homes or leave the Old City altogether out of fear of violence from the crowds.

Contrary to the way these events are often portrayed in mainstream coverage, such displays of racism and hatred are not isolated incidents on the margins of the march — they are central to it. They unfold within a crowd that includes not only youth, but also educators and adults, many of whom respond with indifference or outright encouragement. The march is officially recognized by Israel’s Ministry of Education and supported by the Jerusalem Municipality. The deeper issue is not merely the racist slogans or acts of violence, but the march itself: a public display of domination in the heart of the Muslim Quarter, built on the takeover and paralysis of Palestinian public space and reflective of a much broader political reality.”

Bonus Reads on East Jerusalem

1. “Palestinians forced to demolish own homes to make way for Israeli theme park” (The Guardian, 5/22/26)
2. “Only 7% Approved: Palestinian Building Permits in East Jerusalem Plunge, Freezing Construction” (Haaretz, 5/17/26)
3. “Israel to Build Defense Compound on Site of Demolished UNRWA Headquarters in East Jerusalem” (Haaretz, 5/17/26)
4. LISTEN: “And I too, Love Jerusalem “: Voices from Al Nakba” (This is Palestine podcast, 5/14/2026)
5. “Israel’s trying to expel a whole Palestinian district in East Jerusalem, activists say” (NPR, 5/19/26)

 

STATE BACKED SETTLER TERRORISM

EU Sanctions Violent Settler Entities & Individuals

On May 11th the European Union announced that it plans to place sanctions on several Israeli settlement organizations, including Amana, Nachala and its leader Daniella Weiss, Hashomer Yosh and its former CEO Avichai Suissa, and Regavim and its Director Meir Deutsch. For background on these organizations, see Peace Now’s reporting.

An EU MP told The Guardian that the decision to sanction these entities and individuals is only a “baby step” after years of deadlock on the action. Ireland, a member of the EU, is going even further and is expected to introduce a bill seeking to limit the trade of goods with Israeli settlements.

In response, Israeli Minister Smotrich called for Israel to annex parts of the West Bank. Ben Gvir called the sanctions antisemitic.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“This is a grave warning sign presented to us by the European Union. The rampant violence of settlers in the West Bank, encouraged and supported by the government, is leading Israel into a moral abyss and casting an indelible stain on the State of Israel. The European Union’s decision is also a call to the Israeli public to open its eyes and see the reality we have created through decades of control and settlement in the occupied territories. It is time to stop the deterioration and begin the long journey toward a political agreement and peace. The first step is stop settlement activity.”

Bonus Reads on Settler Terrorism

1. “The State Is Supplanting Settlers as the Driving Force of West Bank Takeover” (Haaretz, 5/18/26)
2. “’He Attacked a Tied-up Dog’: Israeli Settler Filmed Abusing Palestinian-owned Dog in West Bank” (Haaretz, 5/16/26)
3. “Israeli settlers force Palestinian family to exhume and rebury their father” (Al Jazeera, 5/9/26) and,
4. “In the Palestinian Village Where a Man Was Buried Twice in a Day, Residents Are Still Stunned” (Haaertz, 5/16/26) 
5. “Timeline: How One Palestinian West Bank Community Was Erased” (Haaretz, 5/13/26) 
6. “They Fled to Safety in Palestinian Territory, Then Settlers Attacked Again” (New York Times, 5/16/26)

 

BONUS READS

1. “Israel’s Gradual Annexation of Southern Syria under the Pretext of Mine Removal” (Syrian Network for Human Rights, 5/17/26)
2. “Israeli Right’s Praise of Free Market Capitalism Stops at West Bank Settlements” (Haaretz, 5/18/2026)
3. ”Israel’s Real Police Commander Lives in the West Bank Settlement of Kiryat Arba” (Haaretz, 5/12/26)
4. “Strangle, Expel, Collapse: The Smotrich Doctrine for Bringing Down the Palestinian Authority” (Haaretz, 5/18/26)
5. “The Numbers Behind the ‘Sacred Work’ of Cleansing West Bank Palestinians for Future Jewish Villas” (Haaretz, 5/20/26)
6. “Erased: Israeli Settlers’ Brutal War on Palestinian Communities in the West Bank” (Haaretz)

 

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

May 8, 2026

1. EAST JERUSALEM: More Displacement in Silwan
2. WEST BANK: Demolition Notices Raises Concern E-1 Settlement Construction is Nearing, Plans Advance for 643 New Units, Settlers Plot Return to Ganim Settlement, Spotlight on Agricultural Destruction Wrought by Settlements
3. STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERRORISM
4. BONUS READS

---

EAST JERUSALEM

May 17th Eviction Date for Two Families in Batan al-Hawa

Peace Now reports Israel recently delivered an eviction notice affecting 42 members of the Palestinian Rajabi family (7 households), ordering the families to vacate their longtime homes by May 17th. The court ruled in favor of the Ateret Cohanim settler organization’s dubious legal claim to the land on which the homes are built. Ateret Cohanim revived a long-dormant Jewish land trust that owned the land at the end of the 19th century. Ateret Cohanim is using its control over the historic Benvenisti Trust to systematically evict approximately 700 Palestinians in Silwan, replacing them with Jewish Israelis.

Zoheir Rajabi, director of the community center in the neighborhood, told Peace Now:

 “I see myself like a candle that is gradually going out. And it’s hard. You see before your eyes, after 12 years of difficult legal and public struggle, how everything ends. This is the second time we are being removed from our homes. The first time was in 1967 from the Jewish Quarter in the Old City, and now from Silwan. This is the work of the government. It is the one acting to expel us from Jerusalem, and there is no one who can stop it or its racist policy against Palestinians in Jerusalem.”

Peace Now said in a statement:

 “This is a real alarm. If the government does not intervene, and if pressure is not applied to make it intervene, we may see within two weeks more entire families thrown into the street and settlers moving in their place. This is a terrible injustice based on discriminatory laws and the exploitation of the vulnerability and ongoing discrimination against residents of East Jerusalem. The dispossession of Palestinians from their homes in Silwan—homes that there is no dispute were legally purchased by them—through the implementation of a ‘right of return’ for Jews is an indelible stain on the State of Israel. The government can and must stop the forced displacement of an entire community, and the responsibility lies on its shoulders.”

WEST BANK

Israel Delivers Demolition Notices to Palestinian Shops in Plan Connected to E-1 Construction

Peace Now reports Israel has delivered demolition notices to a complex of shops owned by Palestinians near the entrance to the village of Al-Eizariya located just east of Jerusalem next to Ma’ale Adumim. There is concern the demolition of the shops is in preparation for the construction of a new road in the area meant to divert Palestinian traffic away from the E-1 settlement area.

 

Israel Advances Plans for 643 New Settlement Units, Including Units in the Sa-Nur Settlement

On April 29th, the High Planning Council met to approve plans for 643 new settlement units. Full reporting is not available but according to Peace Now the plans include:

• 126 new units in the Sa Nur settlement, which finalizes the statutory planning. Israeli government officials and policymakers joined settlers to celebrate the reestablishment of Sa-Nur weeks ago.
• 176 settlement units in the Mahane Gadi settlement, which will be legalized as a neighborhood of the Masu’a settlement in the northern Jordan Valley. This outpost was built in 2018 on an abandoned Israeli military camp. The outpost has functioned as an educational campus and pre-military academy. 

 

Settler Leaders Planning to Move Settlers Into Ganim Settlement Area

Ynet reports that Yossi Dagan, head of the settler Yesha Council, is very publicly planning to build a new outpost on the site of the Ganim settlement, which was one of four settlements the Israeli government dismantled in 2005 (along with Sa-Nur, Kadim, and Homesh). Dagan said that he has firm plans to move in a “core group of families made up of graduates of the Bnei David pre-military academy in the settlement of Eli” this summer.  

In May 2024, the head of the Israeli Defense Minister Gallant  lifted military orders barring Israeli citizens from entering the areas where the Sa-Nur, Ganim, and Kadim settlements once stood.

 

Palestinian Agriculture is Being Decimated by the Settlement Enterprise

Settlements, outposts and the system of infrastructure that serves them continues to carve up the West Bank, ruin agricultural harvests, and destroy the livelihoods of Palestinian farmers.

Peace Now reports that the IDF Chief signed a seizure order for land west of the Bethelehm so that Israel can build a new settler-only bypass road to the illegal outpost Nahal Heletz. The road will provide settlers a shorter route bypassing the Palestinian village of Battir. Peace Now shares the history behind the Nahal Heletz outpost – is located on the land of Battir, a Palestinian village known for its ancient terraced hills, which are recorded as a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

Peace Now explains the situation:

“the outpost already has an existing road that does not pass between Palestinian homes, but it is unpaved, winding, and long. To shorten the route, settlers from the outpost travel through the village of Battir between the houses. Now the IDF seeks to provide them with a separate road from the Palestinian road that will bypass the homes, under the security pretext, in order to save them the longer journey on the alternative road.”…“The government has lost all shame. After establishing an outpost illegally, without valid plans and on land whose status is disputed, it now dares to use the security pretext to take more Palestinian land in order to create an apartheid road for the settlers of the outpost. This outpost has an alternative route that does not pass between village homes, but it is longer, and therefore the government prefers to seize land from others and harm a heritage site—all just to save a few minutes of travel time for settlers close to its heart.”

Drop Site also reports that Israeli bulldozers destroyed 50 acres of farmland and killed thousands of fruit trees east of Hebron in order to expand Route 60, the major north-south artery through the West Bank. The area is the largest grape-producing region in the West Bank. Farmers tell local news sources they did not receive any advance notice from Israel that their lands were to be cleared.

Peace Now reports the Israeli government’s 2026-2028 budget allocatesl $370,523,582 (1,075,000,000 NIS) for settlement road infrastructure. The current government has already allocated NIS 7 billion for settlement roads.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“The government is using its final months in office to plunder the public coffers and pour funds into the sector closest to its heart. These are roads that lead to the destruction of the State of Israel. Today, after October 7, it is clear to everyone what the cost is of continuing the conflict, and of continuing to invest all security resources in protecting the settlements. The Netanyahu government is condemning us to many more years of bloodshed while simultaneously impoverishing the State of Israel.”

STATE BACK SETTLER TERROR

Documented attacks over the past week include:

• • Duma: On April 25th settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Duma, injuring many including a small child whose face was injured.
  • Al-Mughayir: A boy was shot and killed at school.

• Jalud: Settlers attacked the Palestinian town of Jalud on April 27th. The settlers assaulted a 14-year old boy and an elderly man, and set fire to at least one house before soldiers urged the settlers to leave the area. Later, one settler was arrested for the attacks. Haaretz reports the IDF escorted the settlers back to the outpost and secured their presence there just one day after the attacks.

• Al-Aroub refugee camp: On May 1st, an IDF reservist and settler living in a nearby outpost opened fire towards Palestinian homes in the Al-Aroub refugee camp – located south of Bethlehem.

Ynet reports that authority has been transferred from the IDF to the Israeli Border Police for policing settler crime in Areas A & B (the Border Police already operate in Area C). 

Additional selected reports and analysis on settler terrorism:

• New OCHA report: “West Bank – The impact of Settler attacks | January 2023 – December 2025” 
• “OCHA Humanitarian Situation Report | 1 May 2026”
• “A Child Born, a Father Dead: IDF’s West Bank Commander Says They’re Killing Like It’s ’67” (Haaretz, 5/2/26)
• “In village battered by settler violence, Palestinian still in coma nearly month after attack” (The Times of Israel, 5/3/2026)
• “With World Distracted by War, Extremist Settlers Intensify Attacks in West Bank” (New York Times, 5/4/26)
• “‘The settlers are winning now’: West Bank activists aiding Palestinians are increasingly targets themselves” (The Forward, 4/27/26)
• “‘The night guards’: Inside the grassroots network fighting back against Israeli settler attacks” (Mondoweiss, 4/27/26)
• “5 Things to Know About Israeli Settler Violence Against Palestinians” (The IMEU, 4/1/2026)

BONUS READS

1. “JNF to Cut Back Most of Its Funding of Programs at West Bank Settler Farm Outposts” (Haaretz, 4/26/2026)
2. “The Palestinian farmers whose livelihoods have been destroyed by Israeli settlers” (Mondoweiss, 4/29/26)
3. “Israel’s war on the West Bank comes for Palestinian greenhouses” (+972 Magazine, 5/7/2026)
4. “Israeli maps outline expanded zone of military control in Gaza” (Reuters, 4/29/26)
5. “Reproductive Injustice and Colonial Violence in the West Bank: Animated” (Visualizing Palestine, April 2026)

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

April 24, 2026

1. EAST JERUSALEM: Yeshiva Approved in Sheikh Jarrah, Land Registration
2. WEST BANK: Settlers Move Into Sa-Nur, U.S. Backs Settlement Frenzy, New OCHA Map
3. GAZA
4. LEBANON
5. STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERRORISM
6. BONUS READS

---

 

EAST JERUSALEM

Israel Approves Yeshiva in Sheikh Jarrah

On April 20th, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee approved a plan to build an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva and dormitory complex (called the Glassman Yeshiva, or “Ohr Somayach”) at the entrance to the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Ir Amim reports, “if implemented, the plan would significantly increase the settler presence in the neighborhood, raise security concerns for Palestinian residents, and further alter the character of the space.

The plan calls for the construction of an 11-story building (3 stories below ground) which will include a religious school and dormitories for students and faculty. There are several settler enclaves in Sheikh Jarrah currently, while Palestinians are facing concerted eviction efforts by settlers and the government. 

The yeshiva is slated to be built on a patch of land that was expropriated from Palestinian owners for “public needs”; in 2007 the land was transferred by the Israeli government to the Ohr Somayach Institutions, an international organization which is promoting the yeshiva plan. Ir Amim reports that in 2023, the Ohr Somayach Institutions received over 6 million NIS from its U.S. branch and its donors.

Ir Amim says:

“…The resumed advancement of this plan should be seen in the larger context of heightened efforts to expand Israeli settlement in the neighborhood and displace its Palestinian residents. This includes ongoing eviction threats against Palestinian families and advancement of new settlement plans under the guise of “urban renewal” for Umm Haroun and the Menachem Begin complex in northern Sheikh Jarrah. Urban renewal plans entail the demolition of existing structures and the construction of new buildings in their place. This mechanism is being exploited by the state and settler groups to circumvent the protections afforded to Palestinian residents under protected tenancy and evict entire families in one fell swoop for the establishment of Jewish settlements.

Together, these measures create an ever-increasing stranglehold on Sheikh Jarrah marked by heightened displacement and dispossession of the local Palestinian community. Instead of remaining a vibrant Palestinian neighborhood, it risks becoming a fragmented enclave punctuated by major Israeli settlements that sever the center of East Jerusalem from the Old City and its northern areas.”

East Jerusalem Land Registration

Jewish Currents published a detailed look at what Israel’s campaign to register land in East Jerusalem looks like, and the role the Jewish National Fund is playing (in concert with the Israeli government) to seize land from Palestinians and give it to Israeli settlers.

The article concludes:

“As SOLT spreads across East Jerusalem and the West Bank, it continues to undermine and endanger what is left of historic Palestine. And while some Palestinians are boycotting the SOLT process, most residents know that registration will go on regardless of whether they participate, and that if they do not make a claim, they will likely be expelled. The Abu Tairs share this knowledge, along with a commitment to stay: Abid is erecting new buildings behind his house for his children’s families and relatives returning from abroad, and he promises “no one is going anywhere.” But they are not optimistic. “We’ll be kicked out, that’s what we expect,” Abid said. But, he added, “we’ll have to be dragged out of our houses to leave. Who’s going to leave? Where would we go?”

WEST BANK

Settlers Move Into Sa-Nur Settlement

On April 19th, several Israeli Ministers attended a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the reestablishment of the Sa-Nur settlement in the northern West Bank. The Israeli government has approved the construction of 126 settlement units, and this week 16 Israeli families, including the family of Yesha Council chairman Yossi Dagan, moved into mobile homes in the settlement. The Sa-Nur settlement – located southwest of the Palestinian city of Jenin –  was dismantled by the Israeli government in 2006 as part of a larger Disengagement Plan signed by the Sharon government.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (who also serves as Minister in the Defense Ministry) said at the event:

“On this moving day, we are honored to make a historic correction to the sinful expulsion from northern Samaria…We are abolishing the disgrace of expulsion, killing the idea of ​​the Palestinian state, and returning to the settlement of Sa-Nur. This is a day of celebration for the settlement movement and a national holiday for the State of Israel.” 

Smotrich Says Settlement Expansion Has Full U.S. Support

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told The Jerusalem Post that the U.S. Trump Administration has given “full coordination and full backing for everything related to construction, regulation, and security in the West Bank.” Smotrich further said that Trump had not yet given U.S. support for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank, but that he hoped “we will also succeed in that.”

Peace Now reports that since the beginning of 2025, when Trump came into office, Israel has advanced a total of 27,941 new settlement units – an all time record. The Netanyahu government, since coming into power in 2023, Israel has established 102 new settlements (many of which were outposts), increasing the total number of settlements by 80%.

 

New OCHA Map of West Bank Movement Barriers

OCHA release a new fact sheet and an updated West Bank Access Restrictions Map (PDF | Interactive), showing:

• 925 obstacles across the West Bank (the highest number on OCHA’s 20-year record)
• At least 459 obstacles block or hinder access to main roads
• Over 120 new road gates installed in 2025 (standalone or as part of checkpoints)
• The 712-km-long Barrier (64% built) remains the single largest obstacle
• 3.4 million Palestinians affected

The new map is based on December 2025 fieldwork.

ANNEXATION OF GAZA

Israel is de-facto annexing huge parts of the Gaza Strip via its ever-creeping installation of a new boundary there – called “The Yellow Line.” At the same time, Israeli politicians and settlers continue to call for outright and total annexation, and the establishment of settlements there.

At an event on April 19th, Bezalel Smotrich said:

 “I call on the prime minister to order the IDF to prepare immediately for the full conquest of the Gaza Strip, to establish Israeli control over all the territory of the Strip, and to establish Israeli settlement in it. Without settlement, there will be no security. For a hundred years it has been proven – where the plow passes, the border and security follow. The war must end in an expansion of the State of Israel’s borders.”

On April 22nd, the Nachala settler group organized a 2,000-person march demanding Israel’s annexation of Gaza and construction of Israeli settlements.

ANNEXATION OF LEBANON

In its war on Iran and Lebanon, Israel has invaded southern Lebanon and appears intent to annex large swathes of Lebanese territory south of the Litani River – area which Israel has invaded, bombed, and forced residents to leave.

On April 22nd, a group of Israeli settlers crossed into Lebanon and Syria, calling on the government to annex the areas and establish Israeli civilian settlements there.The group which organized the incursion, called Uri Tzafon (“Awaken Norht”), has previously led illegal crossings into Lebanon, even planting trees in the past. The group said:

“We reiterate our call for true independence and full sovereignty of the State of Israel in southern Lebanon – up to the Litani River and beyond.”

For more on Israel’s history with Lebanon, check out a new FMEP podcast, “The Roots of Israel’s Aggression Against Lebanon” featuring FMEP fellow Peter Beinart in conversation with Bard College Professor Ziad Abu-Rish about the roots of Israel’s aggression against Lebanon.

STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERRORISM

In its April 23rd update, OCHA reports that Israeli settlers have committed at least 680 attacks on Palestinians in over 200 communities — a wild average of six attacks per day. As a result, at least settlers have been directly involved in the killing of 24 Palestinians this year.

Key attacks over the past week include:

• • Al Mughayyir: On April 21st, settlers attacked the village, opening fire towards the a school. Two Palestinians were killed by settler fire, one of which was a 14-year old child at the school. Al-Mughayir is attacked by settlers on a near daily basis.
  • Beith Imrin: On April 21st, settlers attacked and set fire to care and buildings – injuring at least eigh Palestinian in the attack.
  • Deir Dibwan: On 22 April, Israeli settlers shot and killed a Palestinian man during a settler attack on the village of Deir Dibwan, located near Ramallah.
  • Halhul: OCHA reports dozens of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers while they were working on their land near Halhul. The IDF arrived at the scene and declared the area a closed military zone, and detained about 120 Palestinians.

• Qusra: On April 24th, settlers attacked the village of Qusra in the northern West Bank. Settlers threw stones and set fire to property using molotov cocktails.

In addition, settlers built a barb wire fence to prevent children in the Umm al-Khair community of the South Hebron Hills from going to the school in a neighboring community.

BONUS READS

1. “In the West Bank, Israeli settlers who commit crimes enjoy total impunity” (Le Monde, 4/17/2026)
2. “Brief, arbitrary abductions: A new tool of Israeli intimidation in Masafer Yatta” (+972 Magazine, 4/15/2026)

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

April 17, 2026

1. WEST BANK: 34 New Settlements
2. EAST JERUSALEM: Demolitions and Evictions in Silwan, Eviction in Old City, First Jerusalem Outpost
3. STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERRORISM
4. BONUS READS

---

WEST BANK

Unprecedented: Israel Approves 34 New Settlements

On March 25th, the Israeli Security Cabinet secretly approved the establishment of 34 new settlements, of which: 20 will be completely new settlements, 9 are illegal outposts that will be retroactively legalized, 2 will be expansions of existing settlements, and 3 are “neighborhoods” of existing settlements that will be split off and recognized independently.

This is the largest number of settlements ever approved at one time. Since Netanyahu came back to power in 2022, his government has approved the establishment of 103 settlements. Before 2022, there were 127 official settlements, meaning that over the past 4 years the Netanyahu government has increased the number of settlements by 80%.

According to media reports (the Cabinet has not published official information), the new settlements are located across the entire West Bank. Notably:

• Six new settlements will be established in isolated areas of the northern West Bank encircling the Palestinian city of Jenin. There is not currently any Israeli presence in at least five of these areas, meaning these settlements will bring with them significant new infrastructure and military presence to serve and protect the settlements. When the Israeli Cabinet met to consider and approve the 34 new settlements, its reported that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned the lawmakers that the IDF does not have enough manpower to meet the needs posed by 34 new settlements, and that the IDF could potentially collapse.
• Seven new settlements are slated for the Jordan Valley
• Six new settlements in the South Hebron Hills area, 3 of which are slated for firing zones.
• 8 of the new settlements will be built on land that Israel recognizes as privately owned by Palestinians.
• Only 15 of the settlements are slated to be built on land that Israel has declared “state land,” meaning that eleven settlements will be built on land without clear legal status.
• All of the new settlements are located in Area C.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“The government has gone into a frenzy ahead of the elections, seeking to create as many facts on the ground as possible and leave Israel with scorched earth. Today it is already clear to everyone—and the IDF emphasizes this again and again—that the establishment of settlements harms security, places an abnormal burden on the IDF, and undermines the possibility of resolving the conflict and achieving any future security and peace.”

Israeli settlement expert Shaul Arieli posted on X:

“…32 of the 34 settlements are planned outside the route of the existing security barrier. This exposes the gap between the security rationale long presented to the public and the reality on the ground. If the barrier was built to ensure security, why insist on expanding settlement activity beyond it? The answer is clear: ideology, not security, lies at the heart of this policy. It should also be emphasized that these locations remain approximate, as no official map has been published and no final coordinates have been determined. This ambiguity is hardly incidental; it enables the advancement of far-reaching policies away from public scrutiny, avoiding real-time criticism.”

EAST JERUSALEM

Ethnic Cleansing of Silwan Continues with Demolitions and Evictions

On March 30th, Israel demolished four Palestinian buildings in the Al-Bustan section of Silwan – displacing 16 people and damaging other houses in the area. During the demolitions, Israeli inspectors said 10 more demolitions will happen in the coming weeks, and another 30 demolitions are planned for later this year. That would conclude the demolition of the entire neighborhood; Israel plans to build a settler-run archaeological park called “King’s Garden” on the ruins of Palestinian homes.

Ir Amim writes:

“These expulsions are part of an unprecedented escalation in forced displacement from Silwan that is tantamount to forcible transfer and involves multiple state institutions and entities working in collusion with settler groups and reinforced by a complicit judiciary. The amount of resources being allocated and deployed to carry out these measures during an ongoing war underscores the Israeli government’s resolve to exploit the circumstances to accelerate forcible transfer and solidify an irreversible apartheid reality. As detailed in a forthcoming Ir Amim report, a web of state and local authorities, statutory bodies, and laws converge into a single coordinated, multi-layered system of state-orchestrated dispossession and displacement of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, in flagrant violation of international law.”

In a report on Silwan, B’Tselem writes:

“Silwan lies within what is also known as the Holy Basin, which includes the Muslim and Christian quarters of the Old City, Sheikh Jarrah, aTur (Mount of Olives), Wadi alJoz, Ras al‘Amud and Jabal alMukabber. Due to its geographic location, Silwan is rich in archaeological and historical sites, which Israel uses to justify planning and zoning policies that restrict Palestinian development and promote Israeli control in the area. Declaring land as a national park, archaeological site or nature reserve serves, in practice, as a tool for dispossessing Palestinian residents of their land. Moreover, the development of these areas as heritage sites is carried out in close cooperation with far-right civil society organizations, particularly Ateret Cohanim and Elad. This joint effort serves a clear political objective: creating a Jewish strip of territory that severs the contiguity of Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and cuts them off from the rest of the West Bank.”

First Jerusalem-Area Outpost

Settlers have erected the first ever outpost within Israel’s expanded municipal borders of Jerusalem, on lands between the bedouin village of Nu’uman and Umm Tuba.

Haaretz reports the settlers behind the new outpost are a group of teenagers, and while the outpost is currently one large tent the settlers have begun clearing roads. These settlers have already established a pattern of violence, and have launched at least one attac on nearby Palestinian villages – after which the IDF arrested four Palestinians and zero settlers. The settlers also attack Palestinians who have approached their outpost hilltop. Their violent presence has already limited the ability of Palestinians to graze their livestock in the area.

Eviction of Elderly Family in the Old City

The Jerusalem Magistrate Court has ruled that 12 elderly members of the Palestinian Basha family must vacate their home in the Old City, where their family has lived since the 1930s, by April 26th. The State of Israel initiated the eviction case in 2018, arguing that the property belongs to a Jewish religious endowment. The state filed the lawsuit in cooperation with the Ateret Cohanim settler organization.

Mufid Basha told Haaretz: “We have nowhere to go. This is where I was born, and so were all my siblings.”

 Peace Now said in a statement: 

“This is an injustice that cries out to heaven. While hundreds of thousands of Israelis live securely in properties that belonged to Palestinians before 1948, the law in East Jerusalem allows Palestinians to be dispossessed of homes that belonged to Jews before 1948. The government has established a mechanism for the dispossession and expulsion of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, and the General Custodian, a governmental body, has become a central executive arm of this policy. In addition to dozens of eviction lawsuits filed in recent years against Palestinians, the Custodian has also initiated and advanced plans for new settlements within Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem.”

STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERRORISM

State-backed settler terrorism has continued at an alarming rate of 10 incidents per day since the start of the Israeli-U.S. war on Iran. Key incidents over the past three weeks include:

• Tayasir: On April 9th settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Tayasir,resulting in the murder of one Palestinian, Alaa Khaled Sbaih. This deadly attack is the latest in a string of settler attacks on Tayasir, with settlers injuring Palestinians and setting homes, vehicles, and buildings on fire. Settlers attacked a CNN crew who was documenting their attacks on Tayasir. On April 1st, before the murder of Sbaih, eight families from Tayasir decided to leave their homes and village under the coercive threat of settler violence.
• Deir Jarir: Settles attacked  the Palestinian village of Deir Jarir on April 11th, opening fire on Palestinians who attempted to deter them. One Palestinian, Ali Majed Hamadneh (23), was killed by settler fire as he ran away from the settlers.

Further reading on settler terrorism:

• “Israeli Settler Violence: A Strategy to Displace Palestinians from their Land” (Arab Center DC, 4/10/2026)
• “After uprooting Palestinian hamlets, extremist settlers set sights on purge of entire West Bank” (The Times of Israel, 3/31/2026)
• “A strategy ‘to make life intolerable’: Israeli settlers are driving Christians out of West Bank” (The Guardian, 4/5/2026)
• “Political Pressure on IDF High Command Hampers Enforcement Against Settler Violence, Source Says” (Haaretz, 3/31/2026)
• “It’s Time for Trump to Understand: Israel’s Government Won’t Stop Jewish Terror in the West Bank” (Haaretz Editorial, 3/29/2026)
• “Amir Survived a Settler’s Bullet Once. This Time, They Shot Him Through the Heart – in Front of His Father” (Haaretz, 3/27/2026)
• “Israeli Settler Violence Is So Out of Control Even Western Activists Can’t Stop Them” (Jerusalem Post, 4/16/2026)

 

BONUS READS

1. “After Expelling 120 Families, Israeli Settlers Turn Stream Into Holiday Attraction” (Haaretz, 4/12/2026)
2. “On the Brink: The Forced Displacement Crisis Facing Bedouin Communities in the Naqab” (Adalah, March 2026)
3. “Israeli policies pose an existential threat to Palestinians in the West Bank. Why isn’t there more resistance?” (Mondoweiss, 3/31/2026)
4. “US Sanctions: Criminalizing Palestinian and Global Justice Work” (Al-Shabaka, 3/31/2026)
5. “‘It’s Treason’: He’s a Founder of Israel’s Settlements. He’s Horrified by the Rise of Jewish Terror” (Haaretz, 4/9/2026)
6. “No permit, no work, no future: inside the lives of West Bank workers crushed by Israel’s labor ban” (Mondoweiss, 4/16/2026)

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

March 27, 2026

1. WEST BANK: Five New Outposts, Cabinet Approves Legalization of 30 Outposts, 972 Investigations Shows Area B Strategy Unfolding, 19 Billion for Settlements Since 2023, Weaponization Continues
2. EAST JERUSALEM: 15 Families Dispossessed in Silwan
3. STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERRORISM: Settlers Organze Multi-Day Terror Campaigns
4. BONUS READS

---

WEST BANK

Overnight, Settlers Establish Five New Outposts, Killing One Palestinian Who Tried to Stop Them

Haaretz reports that on the night of March 26 settlers established five new outposts, four of which are located in Area A (some ~18% of the West Bank). Later reports suggest the IDF has already demolished all five outposts.

When approximately 40 settlers invaded land in the Palestinian village of Tayasir, settlers fired at Palestinians who came out to stop them from establishing an outpost, killing Mohammad Faraj Al-Malhi, a 27-year-old resident of East Jerusalem. Clashes at the sites of the other outposts resulted in the injury of 14 additional Palestinians. Settlers had attacked Tayasir just one day prior, firing at Palestinians

Kerem Navot founder Dror Etkes told Haaretz:

 “Establishing four outposts in Area A is unprecedented by any measure, and shows the extent to which the State of Israel has lost control not only over settlers in the West Bank, but also over the army, the police and other authorities meant to enforce the law. The establishment of four outposts in a single night is an extreme event with very few precedents in the history of settlements.”

Cabinet Approves “Legalization” of 30 Outposts

The Israeli Security Cabinet reportedly approved the retroactive legalization of 30 outposts across the West Bank. The approval came during the same meeting when IDF Chief of Staff Zamir informed the Cabinet of growing settler violence. There no details on which 30 outposts were affected.

 

972 Investigation: Settlers Systematically Expanding Control Into Areas A & B

In an investigation with The Nation, 972 Magazine chronicles how settlers, having effectuated the de facto annexation of Area C of the West Bank, are now in the process of “methodically breach[ing] the borders of Area B…[where] settler outposts are being strategically used to seize land and drive Palestinian communities out — with the backing of the Israeli army and police. Palestinian communities on the outskirts and margins of Area B towns are being pushed inward, to the centers of these localities. Land on these margins is incrementally taken over through the construction of outposts, the carving of roads, and the declaration of military zones. The effect is a fragmented landscape in which communities are cut off from one another and from agricultural land essential to their livelihoods.”

The investigation, which focuses on the experiences of 12 Palestinians communities, reports the results of settlers’ shifting focus:

“Since October 7, settlers have worked in tandem with the Israeli army to expel at least 76 entire Palestinian communities, while settlers have simultaneously established 152 new outposts. Among these outposts, at least 22 have been established in Area B, including 12 in the “Agreed-Upon Reserve” (a plot of 167,000 dunams in the southern West Bank that is designated as Area B). One outpost has also appeared inside Area A.

According to mapping by +972 Magazine, Local Call, and The Nation, based on data collected by the Israeli organizations Kerem Navot and Peace Now, the settlers living in these outposts have taken control of around 98,000 dunams (almost 25,000 acres) in Area B and Area A. In total, settlers living in outposts now wield effective control over roughly 1 million dunams (250,000 acres) across the West Bank.” 

Netanyahu Government Has Allocated 19 Million for Settlements

Peace Now reports that since returning to power in late 2022, the Netanyahu government has allocated NIS 19 Billion to the settlement enterprise. Peace Now details the expenditures in depth in their report, which you can read/download here.

 

Continued Escalation of Archaeology as Means of Dispossession

State and settler focus and seizure of archaeological sites continues to expand in scope and intensity. As settlers and the state now routinely make incursions into and exercise authority over Area B of the West Bank, Palestinian communities living near/amongst ancient sites are coming under increasing pressure.

Emek Shaveh documents the following incidents since Israel and the U.S. launched a war on Iran:

• Tel Aroma/Jabel Urma: Located south of Nablus and adjacent to the Palestinian town of Beita (Area B), this antiquity site has become the focus of nearby settlers who have tried to establish an outpost at the site though it was dismantled. Settlers nonetheless continue to raid the site and harass Palestinians.
• Marajam: The IDF carried out a demolition of a house in Marajam, located southwest of Duma in the central West Bank (Area C). The house was located on the periphery of an antiquity site but did not pose any threat to the site – as determined by archaeological experts.
• al-Fasayil: The IDF demolished the village of al-Fasayil on March 17th, a bedouin community in the Jordan Valley. Israel had denied building permits for their homes of 20+ years because they were built within an archaeological site. Most residents of al-Fasayil had already fled their homes and lands under the constant, violent harassment of settlers. The Israeli state has previously conducted excavations at the site.

Israeli archaeologist and Board member of Emek Shaveh writes:

“In a recent Facebook post, Israel’s Heritage Minister, Amichai Eliyahu, uploaded a reel of his visit to the Herodium palace in Jericho, putting up an Israeli flag and declaring: “This is our land. Any place built on the heritage of the Jewish people – we will destroy it.”

By defining all “Judea and Samaria” antiquities as “ours” and extracting and appropriating cultural wealth from the ground, Israel impoverishes the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It reduces the Palestinians themselves to the status of strangers in their own land.

In recent years, this has served as a preface to ethnic cleansing. Less than a week after Eliyahu made his statement about “destroying” anything built on our heritage, Israeli settlers from the illegal Palace Farm outpost demolished 13 Palestinian houses in a nearby suburb of Jericho, claiming that they endangered antiquities.

Archaeological excavations across the West Bank, in places such as Susiya, Otniel, Auja al-Foka, and Fasa’il (to name but a few), have foreshadowed the destruction of dozens of Bedouin hamlets and the expulsion of their inhabitants from the southern Hebron Hills and the Jordan Valley. An archaeological park in Jerusalem threatens 100 homes in Silwan….

Archaeology is also wielded as an administrative weapon in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. With as many as 6,000 archaeological sites in the database, legal restrictions on construction and development – as well as claims of damage and looting – are used to demolish Palestinian homes and constrain economic growth (in Israel, sites are routinely examined and, if necessary, removed to allow development)

A common Israeli claim is that Palestinians have “no interest” in antiquities. Beyond perpetuating a racist trope that justified centuries of looting by imperial powers (there are, in fact, hundreds of Palestinian archaeologists), this sentiment fails to recognize that it is Israel’s weaponization of archaeology that has become a threat to Palestinian land and identity. The more we [Israelis] insist that antiquities are ours and only ours, the more we endanger the very sites and artifacts we want to protect.

Only by realizing that the heritage of Israel and Palestine belongs to all who live between the river and the sea will we create the basic conditions for its preservation.”

EAST JERUSALEM

Ethnic Cleansing in Action: 15 Families Dispossessed in Silwan in Favor of Settlers

Over the past week, Israeli forces and settlers forcibly removed 15 Palestinian families from their homes in the Batan al-Hawa section of Silwan, clearing them and their belongings out so that the Ateret Cohanim settler organization can take possession of the buildings and Israeli settlers can move in. There are an additional 15 families under imminent threat of eviction on the basis of the same court decision.

Yosef Basbous, whose family was expelled this week said: 

“Our family was expelled in 1948 and dispersed in refugee camps in the West Bank. I arrived in Silwan with my parents more than 60 years ago. I built this house stone by stone, brick by brick, nail by nail. Today they come to us and expel us again. They claim that the land belonged to a Yemeni waqf and that the custodian sold the land to settlers. The police say they are implementing the court’s decisions, according to the law. But what kind of law is this that can expel me, who has been here for more than 60 years.”

Another expelled resident, Jacob Rajabi told Haaretz:

“They came at 9 A.M., entered the house, took the children and women, and put us out on the street. This is the home where I was born, where I got married, raised children – my whole life is there.”

Peace Now said: 

“Unfortunately, there is no other word to describe this than ethnic cleansing. Settlers, with the help of the government and a discriminatory legal system, are expelling an entire Palestinian community and replacing it with settlers. This is happening in the Jerusalem of 2026 and it is a stain that will not be erased from Israel.”

Ir Amim explains:

“These expulsions are part of an unprecedented escalation in forced displacement from Silwan that is tantamount to forcible transfer and involves multiple state institutions and entities working in collusion with settler groups and reinforced by a complicit judiciary. The amount of resources being allocated and deployed to carry out these measures during an ongoing war underscores the Israeli government’s resolve to exploit the circumstances to accelerate forcible transfer and solidify an irreversible apartheid reality. As detailed in a forthcoming Ir Amim report, a web of state and local authorities, statutory bodies, and laws converge into a single coordinated, multi-layered system of state-orchestrated dispossession and displacement of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, in flagrant violation of international law.”

B’Tselem details the history and context of Silwan, and explains:

“In Silwan, as in other Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem and Palestinian villages across the West Bank, the Israeli regime uses every tool at its disposal to dispossess Palestinians of their land. The goal of removing Palestinians from their homes is pursued out in the open,  the core features of Israel’s apartheid regime, via the court system, and in cooperation with settler organizations, with matching efforts to make Palestinians’ lives unbearable through systematic neglect and violence perpetrated by both official and unofficial actors. This is the reality of systematic, institutionalized violence in which Palestinian residents of Jerusalem live daily under Israel’s apartheid regime, stripped of their most basic rights. Confronting this reality requires urgent and immediate intervention by members of the international community.”

STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERRORISM

The pace of settler attacks is nearly impossible to keep track of. On March 21st (Eid weekend) settlers organized mass riots and attacks on Palestinian communities overnight, resulting in 17 pogroms across the West Bank completely undeterred by the IDF. The attacks were organized in reaction to the death of an 18-year old settler in a car accident, which settlers insisted was a terror attack despite unclear and at times contradictory facts. At the funeral for the settler,  Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for settlers to respond with settlement expansion, saying “We will erase the lines, the definitions, and the letters, and we will settle our land in all its expanses.” The father of the settler called him a “sacrifice“ for the settlements.

Settlers organized a second wave of terror campaigns on March 23rd, injuring at least 10. Five were reportedly arrested.

BONUS READS

1. “How Israel’s strangulation of the West Bank is collapsing the Palestinian educational system” (Mondoweiss, 3/24/2026)
2. “Israel’s Top Court Orders Compensation for Palestinian Family Whose Cattle Were Stolen by IDF Troops” (Haaretz, 3/25/2026)
3. “32 Outposts, 10 Miles of Ground Barrier: IDF Builds New Border Line Inside Gaza. Here’s How It Looks” (Haaretz, 3/26/2025)
4. “Netanyahu Coalition Pushes to Fast-track New Jewish Towns in Arab, Bedouin Areas” (Haaretz, 3/25/2026)
5. “Vance’s office denies report VP raised anti-Palestinian riots with Netanyahu” (Cleveland News Journal)
6. “The Iran War Is About Palestine” (Jewish Currents, 3/24/2026)
7. “Israeli settlers are growing more violent in the West Bank” (The Economist, 3/26/2026)
8. “Settlement of Land Title in the oPt: An International Law-Based Appraisal” (International Humanitarian Law Centre, 3/27/2026)