Settlement & Annexation Report: March 13, 2026

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

March 13, 2026

  1. WEST BANK: Mount Ebal, Sha’arei Tikva Expansion, Court Rejects One “Relocation” Plan
  2. SETTLER & STATE TERRORISM
  3. Further Reading

WEST BANK

Settlers Take Up Residence in New  Settlement on Mount Ebal

Settlers have moved residential structures (pre-fab homes) into the area of the new settlement on Mount Ebal, on a hilltop overlooking the Palestinian city of Nablus and surrounding villages. Settlers have also reportedly prepared to move to the settlement in the coming weeks. T

The settlement on Mount Ebal was approved by the Israeli government in May of 2025, along with 21 other settlements including Homesh and Sa-Nur. Despite its location in Area B, the Israeli Central Command signed off on a jurisdiction area for the settlement composed of several non-contiguous pockets of “state land.”

Settlers have agitated and organized for a settlement on Mount Ebal for years. Mt.Ebal/el-Burnat is purported to be an antiquity site where the biblical prophet Joshua built an altar, originally identified as such in the 1980s by an Israeli archaeologist though the majority of professional archaeologists do not support that conclusion. Emek Shaveh, an Israeli NGO with expertise in archaeology, called the settler campaign to seize Mt. Ebal as a “watershed in Israeli archaeology.” In July 2023, Emek Shaveh reported that a triad composed of settlers, an American Christian evangelical organization, and the Israeli army collaborated on a recent unlicensed excavation on Mount Ebal, which Emek Shaveh called antiquity theft. Further, the groups transferred some 80 cubic meters of soil from Mount Ebal to the Shavei Shomron settlement, where settlers then promoted an opportunity for members of the public to join the archaeologists in sifting through the materials (thereby promoting tourism to the settlements). Haaretz called the excavation “is mainly used as a tourist attraction to the West Bank and is of little scientific significance.”

 

Civil Admin Advances Plans for Expansion of Sha’arei Tikva Settlement 

The Israeli High Planning Council met on March 11th and advanced planning for 126 new settlement units in the Sha’arei Tikva settlement. 

In 2018, the settler-aligned Arutz Sheva media outlet reported that Sha’arei Tikva was one of a number of settlements (Elkana, Sha’arei Tikva, Etz Efraim, and Oranit) that agreed to a plan to unite multiple settlements in the area into one “super settlement” and build the largest-ever settlement industrial zone. By uniting the settlements, Israel will significantly increase the footprint of developed land, allowing for massive projects like the industrial zone. The four settlements and the land between them are located in the “seam-line” zone, the area created by the weaving route of the Israeli separation barrier that was built to keep many settlements on the Israeli side of the barrier despite being east of the 1967 Green Line.

 

Israeli High Court Rejects State’s Plan for “Relocation” of Palestinian Village, Demands State Planning

The Israeli High Court rejected a plan by the State to relocate – – aka ethnically cleanse — the Palestinian village of Arab al-Ramadin from its land on the Israeli side of the Separation Barrier to a new location on the West Bank side. In a surprising position – the Court actually ordered the State to explain why it has not advanced planning for the Palestinian village, though such plans have been professionally prepared and proposed by the village residents with help from the Israeli NGO Bimkom.

Alon Cohen-Lifshitz of Bimkom told Haaretz:

“the state’s outrageous proposal for the forced transfer of Arab al-Ramadin was met with a wall by the Supreme Court, which is unprecedentedly demanding planning for the village in the place where it has been for many decades…The Israeli government must change its approach of ignoring the human rights of Palestinians in the West Bank and fulfill its duty to enable them to live safe lives with a future.”

IDF Demolishes Two Outpost While More Are Set Up

The IDF reportedly demolished the Shirat Zion outpost this week, located near Nablus.

It’s also reported that settlers established at least two new outposts: 

  • A new outpost near Nablus on the lands between the Palestinian villages of al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya, south of Nablus, and Yasuf, east of Salfit. Reports say settlers brough in a movil home and are working to establish a road to the area.
  • A new outpost northwest of Jerusalem on the lands of Beit Iksa. Reports say 40 settlers were accompanied by the IDF while they brought in bulldozers and trucks to clear the land.

 

STATE BACKED SETTLER TERRORISM

It’s been another horrific week in the West Bank as settlers and IDF continue to terrorize Palestinians, with at least six Palestinians killed by settlers since Israel and the U.S. launched their war on Iran and at least 109 incidents of settler violence documented by Yesh Din as of March 11th. Key events over the past weeks include:

  • Four Killed in Settler Pogrom on Khirbet Abu Falah (March 8th). Masked settlers raided the town at 2:00a, and, when Palestinians emerged from their beds to get the settlers to leave, the settlers shot and killed three. When the IDF arrived on scene, soldiers fired tear gas towards Palestinians, resulting in the death of a fourth man from suffocation. Khirbet Abu Falah is located northwest of Ramallah.
  • Uniformed Settler Shoots, Kills One in Masafer Yatta region (March 7th). A settler-soldier serving on a regional defense reserve unit opened fire towards Palestinians in Wadi al-Rakhim who were attempting to herd settler livestock off of their privately owned fields. Two Palestinian brothers were hit, one died on scene and the other was transferred to a hospital in serious condition with a gunshot. Five days after the murder, settlers ransacked the family’s home. Kerem Navot documents the history of the settler, Luria Luski, who fired the kill shots,
  • Settlers Set Fire to Homes in Masafer Yatta (March 11). Settlers set several structures on fire in the Khalwa village in the Masafer Yatta region south of Hebron. Palestinians report the settlers had raided the village earlier in the day, bringing flocks of sheep and a camel.
  • Settlers raid Khirbet Homsa in the Jordan Valley (March 13), attacking Palestinian residents and activists. Activists report 30-40 settlers arrived in the middle of the night, handcuffed and beat people, and then stole 350 sheep. Settlers reportedly retreated to the nearby Beqaot settlement.
  • Settlers ran over a young girl in Umm al-Khair (March 13). The girl was sent to the hospital with a head injury. The settler who allegedly ran her over was filmed leaving the scene.
  • In Qusra, settlers filmed brutally assaulting a Palestinian man (March 13).
  • Reserve soldiers filmed shooting at Palestinians in the village of Sa’ir (March 13), near Hebron. IDF arrived and allowed the shooters to leave without consequence.

Breaking the Silence writes: 

“On Saturday, settler terrorists targeted Masafer Yatta, killing 28-year-old Amerr Shnaran, a father of two, near Susya. Later that night, between Saturday and Sunday, settler terrorists attacked Khirbet Abu Falah, killing two residents: 24-year-old Thaer Hamayel and 57-year-old Fare’e Hamayel. When the IDF arrived in Khirbet Abu Falah, it fired tear gas at Palestinians, killing 55-year-old Mohammad Marra, who suffocated from the gas. The attacks in Qaryut, Masafer Yatta, and Khirbet Abu Falah follow a disturbingly similar pattern: settler terrorists, often wearing IDF uniforms, enter Palestinian villages with firearms and kill people. Afterwards, instead of stopping the terrorists, the IDF punishes the very people whom they attacked.

Critically, the line between the IDF and the settlers is becoming increasingly blurred, with many attackers wearing IDF uniforms, serving in regional defence units, or using IDF-issued weapons. These attacks are yet another tragic piece of evidence of a coordinated effort by the IDF, the state of Israel, and settler terrorists to drive Palestinians from their land. On Thursday, these coordinated efforts forced the last families of the Bedouin community on the outskirts of Duma, Nablus district. To learn more about the eroding line between violent settlers and the IDF, see the new report by our partners at Yesh Din: “Settlers in Uniform: Violence Against Palestinians by Israelis in Military Uniforms.”

MK Ayman Odeh posted on X:

“Amid Netanyahu’s survival war, gangs of settlers move from village to village, sometimes alongside the army, and kill Palestinians simply because they are Palestinians.”

All of this occurs under the army’s protection and with government encouragement. This is an official, deliberate policy aimed at ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and the realization of the government’s messianic and fascist vision: more occupation, more killings and pogroms, more expulsions, and more annexation. The war with Iran will end, but as long as the occupation continues, the bloodshed will continue.”

Haaretz columnist Amira Hass writes:

“behind every scruffy teen or cowboy with a tzitzit and a gun is a long line of well-dressed lawyers and planners who graduated from the best universities, cabinet ministers and Jewish National Fund clerks, military commanders and heads and inspectors of the Civil Administration. The ones who for years pretended that “security” was the sole reason for declaring firing zones and prohibitions on land cultivation. The ones who, in the name of law enforcement, ordered the destruction of water cisterns and prohibited Palestinian communities from connecting to water and electricity. The ones who drafted and are drafting laws and orders that stipulate, in crude military language or in grandiloquent legalese, that public land will be allocated only to Jews. They are the ones who designed and authorized separation walls and highways so as to devour as much Palestinian farmland and future building lots as possible – on both sides of the Green Line, in the Negev and in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The Jewish holy terror, which reaches new heights every day, only greatly accelerates the bureaucratic violence and dispossession that the state has carried out for decades.”

BONUS READS

  1. “The Netanyahu Government Approves Hundreds of Millions for Settlements in Coalition Funds” (Peace Now, 3/11/2026)
  2. “Dirty Work by Nathan Thrall” (The New York Review, 3/26/2026 Issue)
  3. “In This Palestinian Village, There’s Nowhere to Hide From Iranian Missiles or Settler Pogroms” (Haaretz, 3/7/2026)
  4. “Sanctions on Israeli settlements are working – even without the US” (The Guardian, 3/10/2026)
  5. “Humanitarian Situation Report | 6 March 2026” (OCHA, 3/6/2026)
  6. “A Message to All IDF Soldiers: You May Rampage, Assault and Abuse, and You Will Never Be Punished” (Haaretz, 3/13/2026).

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

August 14, 2025

  1. Israel to Approve E-1 Settlement Next Week
  2. Israel Published Tenders for Huge Expansion of Ma’ale Adumim Settlement
  3. Israel Publishes Tenders for Construction of a New Settlement, Ariel West
  4. Plan for Yeshiva in Sheikh Jarrah Advances Again As Israel Seeks New Ways to Expel Palestinian Residents
  5. Plan for Yeshiva in Sheikh Jarrah Advances Again As Israel Seeks New Ways to Expel Palestinian Residents
  6. Another West Bank Communities Have Been Expelled By Settler Terrorism
  7. Bonus Reads

Israel to Approve E-1 Settlement Next Week

On August 13th, the High Planning Council published its decision to reject all objections to the plan for the E-1 settlement, clearing the way for the Israeli government to grant final approval to the highly controversial plan at a meeting scheduled in less than one week, on August 20th. Peace Now warns that if the planning process continues to move as quickly as it has over the past weeks, construction on E-1 could conceivably begin within a few months.

Bezalel Smotrich, in what has been described as a “victory lap,” held a press conference at the site of the future E-1 settlement where he claimed that U.S. President Trump has approved the plan, though the White House declined to confirm. At the event, which was held prior to formal confirmation of approval, Smotrich said:

“The approval of construction in the E1 area undermines the idea of a Palestinian state and is part of the broader steps we are taking as part of our de facto sovereignty plan, which began with the formation of this government. After decades of international pressure and freezing of projects, we are defying conventions and cementing the connection between Ma’aleh Adumim and Jerusalem.”

The governments of Jordan and Qatar issued a statement condemning Smotrich’s announcement and the plan for the E-1 settlement. The statements come in addition to previous day condemnations of Netanyahu’s public profession that he has a deep “connection” to the vision of Greater Israel as described in the Bible.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“The E1 plan is deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution. We are standing at the edge of an abyss, and the government is driving us forward at full speed. There is a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to the terrible war in Gaza — the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel — and it will ultimately come. The government’s annexation moves are taking us further away from this solution and guaranteeing many more years of bloodshed.”

Israel Published Tenders for Huge Expansion of Ma’ale Adumim Settlement

On August 12th, the Israeli Land Authority published tenders for the construction of 3,300 new settlement units that would connect the Ma’ale Aduminm settlement to the Mishor Adumim industrial zone to its east. Increasing the size of the settlement by 33%. The construction will be on land immediately south of the future E-1 settlement, compounding Israel’s total control of the highly sensitive area. Peace Now further notes that Ma’ale Adumim does not appear to need new construction, as the population growth has been stagnant for a decade.

Israel Publishes Tenders for Construction of a New Settlement, Ariel West

On August 12th, the Israeli Ministry of Housing published tenders for 730 units to build a new “neighborhood” of the Ariel settlement (called the “Amririm Neighborhood”). In reality, the new units will be built on a hilltop located 1.2 miles away from Ariel in an area that is non-contiguous with the built up area of the current Ariel settlement – meaning that a new settlement has been approved for construction. The new tenders join a previously issued batch of tenders issued in 2021 for 731 units, though the tenders have not yet been opened for bidding. Regardless, infrastructure work on the hilltop was reported to have begun in March 2024.

The hilltop is located on land declared by Israel to be “state land” inside of the jurisdictional boundaries of the Ariel settlement, as authorized by the Israeli government. The jurisdictional boundaries of Ariel include several non-contiguous land areas — due to the fact that the area is dotted with land that even Israel recognizes to be legally owned by Palestinians (leaving Palestinian land in some places nearly completely surrounded by land given to the settlement).

The new settlement will further exacerbate the limitations that the settlements inflict on Palestinian agricultural workers in addition to the future development of the nearby Palestinian town of Salfit, as illustrated in this video by Peace Now.  Even before the “expansion” plan, Ariel’s jurisdictional area was identified as a direct hindrance on the future development of Salfit.

Plan for Yeshiva in Sheikh Jarrah Advances Again As Israel Seeks New Ways to Expel Palestinian Residents

Ir Amim reports the Jerusalem District Planning Committee has accepted modifications to plans for the construction of the Glassman Yeshiva at the entrance to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. The Committee also republished the updated plan, starting a 30-day clock for the public to submit objections to the plan.

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.

At the same time, Ir Amim reports that a settler owned company has applied for a building permit in the Um Haroun section of Sheikh Jarrah, which if granted will result in the expulsion of five members of the Saou family even though they are considered “protected tenants” even under Israeli law. Ir Amim explains why this is novel, and hugely consequential:

“This is the first attempt to evict Palestinians with protected tenancy status under the guise of urban renewal (pinoi binui). In the past, protected tenancy status successfully protected certain families in Sheikh Jarrah from attempted evictions. If settlers successfully evict the Saou family as part of an “urban renewal” project, this can set a dangerous precedent for many other Um Haroun residents. Settler activists are already preparing to request a building permit which will allow them to tear down an additional building in Um Haroun and evict its Palestinian residents. Almost all the other homes in Um Haroun are threatened by an urban renewal plan which is in the preliminary stages of its approval process.”

Israel Advances Plan for New Settlement “Nofey Rachel” in East Jerusalem

Ir Amim reports that the Jerusalem District Committee has submitted for public review a plan for the construction of a new settlement – Nofey Rachel – in East Jerusalem. Once the plan is published, there is a 60 day period for the public to submit objections to the plan.

The new settlement plan calls for 650 settlement units to be built on land on the southern slopes of the Sur Baher neighborhood in East Jerusalem, directly bordering the boundaries of the “Lower Aqueduct” settlement plan. Together, Ir Amim explains: 

“these two settlements will isolate Sur Baher-Umm Tuba, fracturing it from the Palestinian space around it, inducing Beit Safafa to its northwest and Beit Sahour and Bethlehem in the West Bank to its south. As such, the new plan will extend the Israeli territorial continuum between Har Homa, the Lower Aqueduct, and Givat Hamatos, which further seals off the southern edge of East Jerusalem from Bethlehem and the southern West Bank.”

For more information regarding the plan see Ir Amim’s previous alert.

Another West Bank Communities Have Been Expelled By Settler Terrorism

The Ein Ayoub bedouin community (19 households, 102 people) has been expelled from their land near Ramallah as a result of unabated settler terrorism which has included arson, violent attacks, poisoned livestock, and drones surveilling their homes. Settlers built a new outpost near the community in the weeks preceding the expulsion.

On August 8th settlers and IDF soldiers entered the communities and threatened residents, telling them to leave within 24hours. The next morning, armed settlers returned to the village, standing guard in an act of intimidation and threat. The IDF arrived in the village on Sunday night and ordered the community to leave the village because of a new military order declaring the area a “closed military zone”. After facing international attention, the IDF later said that the soldiers evicted the community in error due to a “misunderstanding” and that the order was not meant to be applied to the bedouin. The community residents decided to leave the community, citing the fear of lawlessness and violence they face daily. One resident told Haaretz that he asked IDF soldiers if they would protect the community if they decided to say, to which the soldier replied: “I don’t protect Bedouin.”

Ein Ayoub is the third community expelled from the land in the past two monts by the coercive violence of settlers. 

Bonus Reads

  1. “West Bank faces rising wave of settler violence against IDF and police” (Ynet, 8/11/25)
  2. “With Arson and Land Grabs, Israeli Settler Attacks in West Bank Hit Record High” (New York Times, 8/14/25)
  3. “Israel builds new settlement road northeast of occupied East Jerusalem” (MEMO, 8/10/25)
  4. “IDF to remain in Samaria camps through 2025” (JNS, 8/10/25)
  5. “Bowen: Israeli settlers intensify campaign to drive out West Bank Palestinians” (BBC, 8/10/25)
  6. ”U.S. to Reportedly Soften Criticism of Israel, Judicial Coup in Annual Human Rights Report ” (Haaretz, 8/10/25)