Settlement & Annexation Report: September 4, 2026

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September 4, 2026

  1. WEST BANK: Three New Settlements Inaugurated, Major “State Land” Declarations for Outpost Legalizations, New Seizure Order for Bi’ilin, Israel Expels Khirbet al-Taban
  2. STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERROR
  3. BONUS READS

WEST BANK

Three New Settlements: Noa, Maqada, Ma’ale Arugot

Three new settlements were inaugurated this week by Israeli officials. Two of the settlements, Noa and Maqada, were approved for construction in March 2026, when the government approved a total of 34 new settlements. It took just five months from the time of approval to construction.

  1. Noa: Located in the northern West Bank near Jenin, the Noa settlement is surrounded on three sides by Area A. Even ahead of the ceremony, the land has been cleared and mobile homes have been moved to the site. Earlier this year, in preparation for the Noa settlement, the IDF approved the construction of a road inside of Area A in order to connect the settlement site to the new Emek Dotan settlement to its north. In total, there are 19 new settlements planned for the area surrounding Jenin in the northern West Bank. According to Peace Now, this is the first time since the Oslo Accords that Israel has used a military seizure order to take land in Area A for a civilian construction project, without any pretext of security.
  2. Maqada: Located west of Hebron on a narrow strip of land considered to be Area C, where Palestinians are currently living. Maqada is one of three new settlements planned for that area, which will combine with the already built Negohot settlement to completely bring the area under tight Israeli control, bringing new Israeli roads and infrastructure to the area. The other two new settlements, Meged and Ma’aleh Anav, are expected to be established in the coming months. Co-founder of Breaking the Silence, Yehuda Shaul, notes the inauguration of the Maqada settlement was attended by representatives of the World Zionist Organizaiton, the Amana settler group, and heads of the settlement Regional Councils.
  3. Ma’ale Arugot: Located near Bethlehem. In inauguration the settlement, Israeli Minister Smotrich said this is part of his settlement revolution, a plan to bring 1 million settlers to the West Bank.

According to Prime Minister Netanyahy, since coming to power in 2022 his government has established 84 new settlements and 150 outposts. 

Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Heba Morayef, said:

“These latest confiscation orders from Area A show how Israel is now brazenly expanding its annexation agenda to areas that have been under the control of the Palestinian authorities since the Oslo Accords. States with close trade and political relationships with the Israeli government must urgently take action to pressure Israel to rescind these land confiscation orders. Any states providing assistance to Israel’s expansion of illegal settlements or other war crimes risk complicity in international crimes against Palestinians.

“By building new roads linking settlements to one another, Israel is carving up the Jenin governorate into isolated cantons, undermining the area’s geographical and economic integrity and tearing Palestinian communities apart; further fragmenting them and restricting their freedom of movement. Alongside Israel’s forcible transfer and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Area C, these measures illustrate in action the Israeli authorities’ determination to intensify its formal annexation of Palestinian land across the occupied West Bank.”

 

Israel Declares 1,522 Dunams to be “State Land” in order to Legalize Two Outposts

Israel’s rapid legalization of outposts continued this week with the declaration of 1,522 dunams of land to be “state land” so that two outposts that were illegally built on that land can be retroactively legalized. The two outposts that are in the process of being legalized are:

  1. Givat Harel: located south of Nablus on lands belonging to the Palestinian villages of Sinjil, Luban a-Sharqiya, and Qariyut. With the “state land” declaration, Smotrich announced the outpost will be renamed “Carmei Oz.”
  2. Keidar South/Mishmar Yehuda: located just east of Jerusalem on lands belonging to Abu Dis and as-Sawahra a-Sharquiya. With this state land declaration, the Keidar South outposts will be connected to the land where a new settlement, Mishmar Yehuda, is planned to be built. The area is part of the Israeli government’s plan to control the area east of Jerusalem where the E-1 settlement is planned to be built.

Peace Now reports that the government has declared 28,641 duman to be state land since December 2022.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“Netanyahu and Smotrich are determined to fight against the entire world and against the interests of Israel’s citizens for the sake of a handful of settlers who are handed thousands of dunams as a gift — land taken from Palestinians through disgraceful means. This is another government grab before the election, in a race 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 chooses instead to make this more difficult and move us further away from the possibility of peace and an end to the bloodshed.”

Israel Siezes Land from Bi’ilin for New Road

+972 Magazine reports the Israeli army is planning to seize land belonging to the Palestinian village of Bil’in in order to build a new “security road” connecting the settlements of Modi’in Illit to the outpost Sde Ephraim, which is in the process of being retroactively legalized. While the road is ostensibly for IDF use, settlers routinely use the current dirt road that the plan seeks to pave. The road can also pave the way for new settlements and outposts in the area.

Muammad Khatib, who has been a leader in Bilin’s popular resistance activism, told +972 Magazine:

“They claim it’s a security road to Jabal Al-Risan [the hilltop on which Sde Ephraim was established], but it isn’t. It’s a settlement road. The aim is to create a settlement corridor, expand Israeli settlement toward Bil’in, seize around 600 dunams, and establish additional outposts. 

Bil’in was a symbol of popular resistance. The struggle succeeded in reclaiming a large portion of the village’s land and preventing the establishment of a planned major expansion [of Modi’in Illit]…The goal is to shatter the symbol that Bil’in has become. They want to send a message that says, ‘We are in control; we will decide the fate of these lands.’”

Israel Demolishes Khirbet Al-Taban in South Hebron Hills

On September 2nd the Israeli Civil Administration carried out the forcible displacement of the Khirbet a-Taban bedouin community in the South Hebron Hills. 12 homes and many livestock structures were demolished, leaving 70 people homeless, deprived of their means of income, banished from their lands. This is the 66th Palestinian community expelled from their land since October 2023. An additional 18 communities have been partially displaced.

The Jewish Currents news desk reported:

“Israeli authorities on Wednesday flattened the West Bank village of Khirbet al-Taban, home to more than 70 Palestinians. Officials arrived at the tiny hamlet in the South Hebron Hills on Wednesday morning, ordered residents to leave their homes, and proceeded to destroy all 12 of the village’s cinder-block houses, nine sheep pens, 15 water tanks, a wheeled water tanker, and other village infrastructure, leaving virtually nothing standing. Israeli authorities also sealed up nearby caves to keep residents from taking shelter there. Video from the scene shows three yellow construction vehicles tearing through steel and concrete.

Khirbet al-Taban is located in Masafer Yatta, a region near Hebron that includes the villages of Tuba, which settlers burned in an arson attack in August, and Umm al-Khair, where the activist Awdah Hathaleen was shot to death by a settler last year. (Scroll down for a report from Basel Adra on livestock thefts in and around Masafer Yatta.) Much of Masafer Yatta, including Khirbet al-Taban, lies within an area the military decreed a “firing zone” in the 1980s, a designation the Israeli authorities have used to justify ongoing efforts to depopulate villages that have existed, in many cases, since long before Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967. “Settler outposts in the area continue to proliferate, while the Israeli escalation against Palestinians in Masafer Yatta only continues, especially in recent weeks,” my colleague Maya Rosen told me Wednesday. “A large-scale demolition also occurred in the nearby village of al-Fakhit two weeks ago. Yesterday’s demolition in al-Taban is the largest in the region since the destruction of Khalet a-Daba’ last year.”

After Israeli authorities reduced the village to rubble on Wednesday, men in Khirbet al-Taban worked to set up a large tent to shelter the villagers for the night. “The State of Israel cites formal arguments such as ‘living in a firing zone’ and ‘violating planning and building laws’ to justify its policy in Masafer Yatta,” the Israeli human rights group B’tselem wrote in its report on the demolition. “These are false claims, meant to conceal Israel’s aspirations to take over the land for its own purposes and use it to benefit the Jewish population only.””

STATE BACKED SETTLER TERROR

Major Settler Attacks this Week: Al-Mughayyir, Jalud, Bizzariya

Settlers have continued their violent attacks on PAlestinian communities across the West Bank. A few of the attacks include:

  • Al-Mughayyir: On September 2nd, settlers and IDF soldiers raided the besieged town of al-Mugghayir, located in the central West Bank near Ramallah. Two Palestinian teenagers were shot and killed by the raiding forces. Al-Mughayyir has been near constantly terrorized by settlers, leading +972 Magazine to call the village “a laboratory of Israeli ethnic cleansing.” The village lives under curfew and the main road into the village is blocked off.
  • Jalud: On August 29th, settlers violently attacked an elderly Palestinian women and an NBC news crew which was in Jalud to interview the woman regarding the impact of settler violence and land confiscations. Jalud is located near Nablus in the northern West Bank.
  • Bizzariya: On September 1st, settlers set fire to a mosque in the village of Bizzariya, located near Nablus. Settlers also spraypainted various phrases on nearby buildings, saying things like ““Evacuations [of outposts] = trouble. You’ve been warned,” and “Regards to Huckabee from the terrorists.”

BONUS READS

  1. “Israel Isn’t Debating a Palestinian State. It’s Preparing for Expulsion” (Haaretz, 9/1/2026)
  2. “To Save My Home, I Fly the American Flag” (New York Times, 9/2/2026)
  3. “Qusra Under Siege” (The New York Review, 9/24/2026)
  4. “Under Israel’s watch, Palestinian gangs are sowing chaos in the West Bank” (+972 Magazine, 8/25/2026)
  5. “These Generals Fought for Israel. Now They See ‘Jewish Terrorism’ as the Threat.” (New York Times, 8/31/2026)
  6. “Is West Bank Settler Terror Really the Work of a Handful of Teenagers?” (Haaretz, 8/28/2026)
  7. “Backed by the Government and Army, Israeli Settlers Gain a Foothold in West Bank’s Area B” (Haaretz, 8/30/2026)
  8. “New Maps Show How Israel Has Thwarted Hopes for a Palestinian State” (The New Yorker, 8/29/2026)
  9. “Militarized Industrial Policy and Israeli Surveillance Firms” (7amleh, 9/1/2026)
  10. “Israeli Settlers Blast Trance Music at Him Day and Night. He Just Smiles” (Haaretz, 9/4/2026)
  11. “Who are the ‘Hilltop Girls’ behind Israel’s ‘soft settlement’ strategy?” (Al Jazeera, 9/3/2026)