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July 31, 2026
- WEST BANK: Plans for 853 Settlement Units Advance; IDF Siezes Area A Land for Settlement Road; Wave of Settler Attacks & New Outposts; Knesset Amends Budget to Give Millions to Settlements; UNESCO Recognizes Sebastia as Endangered World Heritage Site
- BONUS READS
WEST BANK
Israel Advances Construction Plans for 853 Settlement Units
The Israeli High Planning Council convened on July 29th and advanced plans for 853 new settlement units, including a plan that would triple the size of the Eli settlement. According to JNS, Israeli Minister Smotrich said the plans include:
- 763 new settlement units in the Eli settlement, located between Nablus and Ramallah in the northern West Bank as part of a string of Israeli settlements reaching from the Green Line to the Ariel, Eli, and Amichai settlements that bisect the northern West Bank and reach through to the Jordan Valley;
- 90 new settlement units in the Har Adar settlement, located near Jerusalem in what Israel calls the “seam zone,” i.e., the area of the West Bank that runs along, and sometimes on the Israeli side of, the separation barrier.
Earlier Peace Now reporting suggested the High Planning Council would also take up plans to advance 498 new units in the Givat Zeev settlement, but those plans are not reported to have advanced at this meeting.
IDF Seizes Land in Area A for Settlements
Kerem Navot reports the IDF has seized land in Area A in order to connect two new settlements in the northern West Bank, marking the first time the IDF has seized Area A land for (admittedly) non-military purposes.
The order affects land belonging to the Palestinian villages of Qabatiya, which is being seized in order to construct a road connecting the settlements Noa and Emek Dotan, two completely new settlements the Israeli government approved for construction on March 25, 2026. Haaretz reports settlers are expected to move into the new settlements as early as next month.
Emek Shaveh founder Dror Etkes told Haaretz:
“I have never seen anything like this before…there have already been a few seizure orders in Area A, but they were for military purposes, such as building the separation barrier or a military base. Here, this is a clearly political civilian purpose of connecting settlements…[this represents] a deliberate collapse of the agreements by the military, which is acting under a political directive. Without explicitly saying so, the State of Israel is dismantling the Oslo Accords by violating Palestinian sovereignty in Area A.”
Settlers Establish Several New Outposts Following Attack in Tell
Settlers established several new outposts over the past weekend, with reports suggesting between three and six new illegal encampments. Settlers carried out a wave of attacks on Palestinians and organized efforts to establish new outposts in the aftermath of the murder of four Palestinians in the village of Tell who were killed by settlers and/or Israeli soldiers while trying to stop a settler raid on the village. Two settlers were killed in the clash. Settlers had set fire to a home in Tell just one week before. In response, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz announced the government would accelerate the “legalization” of outposts and support the establishment of more outposts. Settler immediately took up his call.
One of the new outposts is in Tell. Drop Site News reports settlers, under the protection of the IDF, brought several caravans to the site of the clash, and uprooted hundreds of Palestinian-owned olive trees.
New outposts were also reported on land belonging to Deir Istiya, Umm Safa, Sinjil, Deir Ballut,and Asira al-Shamaliya.
According to the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, so far in 2026 Israeli settlers have established 42 new outposts: 13 in the Hebron region, nine near Ramallah, eight near Nablus and four near Bethlehem.
Knesset Is Out, But Financial Committee Convened to Allocate Millions for Settlements
Peace Now reports the Knesset Finance Committee concerned on July 29th to amend the state budget, including a government request to allocate millions more to the settlements and violent outposts.
Among the government’s requests:
- NIS 335.4 million to the Ministry of Settlements,
- NIS 658.1 million for security and protection measures, most of which are designated for settlements. This could include providing settlements with utility vehicles, road construction, solar panels, drones, cameras, electric gates, and more.
- NIS 112 million ($36.5 million)for archaeology in the West Bank. This will fund the development and preservation of sites across the West Bank, including sites in Areas A & B, which the Israeli government took authority over in February 2026.
Peace Now said in a statement:
“In a pre-election budget grab, the government is looting public funds to deepen Israeli control and occupation in the territories. It is now clear to everyone that the violence, attacks against Palestinians, and the dispossession and forced displacement of Palestinians are part of an organized and well-funded government policy. It is no longer possible to claim that this is merely the work of a small group of lawbreakers. It is a small group acting in the service of a government plan.”
UNESCO Recognizes Sebastia as Endangered World Heritage Site
On July 24th the UNESCO World Heritage Committee decided to designate the Sebastia as an endangered World Heritage site. The designation comes after escalating Israeli government and settler moves to seize control of Sebastia. In its explanatory text, UNESCO writes:
“imminent expropriation orders by the IOP … aim to sever the link between the community and the heritage site Urgent protective measures are needed to prevent irreversible loss of these attribute.
…the IOP … seek[s] to alter the site’s identity and disconnect it from its Palestinian context. Protecting this authentic spirit requires safeguarding not only the stones but also the community that gives them meaning.
…the archaeological area is currently under the unilateral control of the IOP, which restricts Palestinian management authority, hinders conservation (particularly on the Acropolis), and poses existential threats through expropriation and settlement expansion.”
Emek Shaveh said in a statement:
“We congratulate the State of Palestine, the Municipality of Sebastia, and the people of Sebastia on this historic recognition. The inscription affirms that Sebastia is the shared cultural heritage of humanity and that the residents of the town Sebastia and the State of Palestine are the rightful custodians of that heritage.
The present-day village stands within the ancient settlement and incorporates Roman, medieval, Islamic, Crusader and Ottoman remains. Detaching the acropolis from the village and presenting it as a self-contained biblical site under exclusive Israeli control would destroy the integrity of the site.
Conservation cannot serve as a pretext for expropriation, exclusion, unilateral excavation or the replacement of a living Palestinian heritage economy with a site controlled by the occupying power and oriented towards settlements and Israeli tourism.The international community must ensure that the inscription is translated into meaningful protection. Israel must halt the expropriation process and all development, excavation and infrastructure work that could alter the site without the participation and consent of the competent Palestinian authorities and the local community.
In addition, we call on Israel to honor its commitments under the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, and to allow experts and professionals on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, as well as the residents of Sebastia, access to the part of the site located in Area C to carry out the necessary restoration work to ensure that the site’s authenticity and integrity are preserved and safeguarded.”
BONUS READS
- “Registering Dispossession: The Legal Architecture of Palestinian Land Confiscation and Erasure” (Law for Palestine, 7/29/2026)
- “IDF increases West Bank deployment to 26 battalions amid sharp rise in violence” (Jerusalem Post, 7/27/2026)
- “How Palestinians in the West Bank became so vulnerable to Israeli settler terror” (Mondoweiss, 7/30/2026)
- “’Israeli settlers laid siege to our home’: Inside a Palestinian village under weekly attack” (BBC, 7/29/2026)