West Bank between Anvil of settlers bypass roads and Hammer of checkpoints

Madeeha Araj
2025 / 1 / 26

By: Madeeha Al-A’raj
The national Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements stated in its latest weekly report , that Israeli FM and Minister of Settlement in the Ministry of Army, Smotrich has appointed Hillel Roth, who was the treasurer of the Shomron - northern West Bank Regional Council, and deputy -dir-ector of the Religious Youth ‘Bnei Akiva’, as a civil deputy head of the Civil Administration on May 29, 2024,, giving him full power over settlements and lands, leaving the army responsible for managing only certain matters related to the lives of Palestinians. So, Roth is implementing the plans to control as much as possible of the West Bank’s lands. On the 16thof this month, Roth issued an order to confiscate about 280 dunams of land from the Jaba, Kafr Aqab and Mikhmas villages to pave a new bypass road for settlers south of Ramallah.
The oder comes after the road plan ‘no. 926/1’ went into effect in May 2024 after the Supreme Planning Council rejected all objections submitted by citizens. The new road connects the Ramallah bypass road near the Kokhav Yaakov settlement with the Qalandia crossing (a road that passes under the Qalandia checkpoint and in its the final stages), it enables settlers from east and north of Ramallah to reach Israel, without passing through crowded areas at the entrance to Jerusalem at the Hizma checkpoint. The occupation authorities and the Smotrich Civil Administration expect the opening of the road will enhance the development and construction of settlements north of Jerusalem.
The new highway No. 45, ‘the Alme’hjar road’, for which the land was confiscated, is a central axis in a network of roads that the government has been working on intensively in recent years, with the aim of connecting to the Qalandiya crossing – which is currently being completed -at a cost of nis 80,000,000 – a road that passes under the Qalandiya checkpoint and is intended to allow settlers to pass quickly into Israel without undergoing the strict inspections to which Palestinians are subject to.
The road completes the mission of expanding and developing St. 60 in the section between Sha ar Binyamin and the British Police Junction, and expanding and developing St. 437 (the Ramallah bypass road) in the section between Hizma and Sha ar Binyamin – and additional roads, such as, the Taghafi (the Fondoq road), expanding the main Se. 55 between the Green Line and the Alfei Menashe settlement in the Qalqilya Governorate, and expanding Highway 505 ‘Trans-Samaria’ between the Ariel and Tapuah (Za tara) junctions, and St. 60 between Halhul and Sa ir. In recent months, there have been a series of developments in the progress of many roads for settlers with budgets approaching 7 billion shekels, according to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Moreover, the occupation forces continue to install iron gates at the entrances to towns and villages in the West Bank, as part of the policy of tightening the siege on the West Bank, cutting it off and turning it into ‘scattered enclaves’, restricting the movement of citizens and imposing collective punishment on them. For this reason, the occupation forces installed a new iron gate last week and placed cement cubes at the entrance to the Kafr Malik village, Ramallah, and an iron gate at the main entrance to the Deiristiya town in the Salfeet Governorate, noting that it has been closed with -dir-t mounds for 10 days, and an iron gate at the eastern entrance to the Al-Khader town in the Bethlehem Governorate and another at the western entrance to the town, under the bridge near the Aqabat Hasna area, the main entrance leading to the western countryside, and an iron gate near the Jaba military checkpoint northeast of the occupied city of Jerusalem, to block the paths of citizens trying to take the -dir-t roads, which are in addition to another that has been installed for a year at the military checkpoint.
Noting that the occupation army has significantly escalated the policy of besieging and isolating cities and towns in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, since the beginning of the aggression on the Gaza Strip in Oct. 2023, turning them into isolated islands, as the number of military checkpoints approaches 900 checkpoints, iron gates and earthen mounds distributed across the various governorates of the West Bank: 229 in Hebron Governorate, 147 in Nablus Governorate, 129 in Ramallah Governorate, 83 in Jerusalem Governorate, 65 in Bethlehem Governorate, 53 in Qalqilya Governorate, 50 in Salfeet Governorate, 33 in Tubas Governorate, 32 in Jericho Governorate, 27 in Tulkarm Governorate, and 24 in Jenin Governorate. Meanwhile, the movement of settlers on the roads proceeds smoothly under the protection of the occupation army and police.
On another level, the new US President Trump canceled the executive order no. 14115, which issued by his predecessor Biden in Feb. of last year, imposing sanctions on settlement entities, such as, the ‘Hashomer Yosh’ organization for providing material assistance and financial support to settlement outposts from which terrorists specialize in violence against Palestinians, and the ‘Amana’ organization and its subsidiary ‘Binyanei Bar Amana’ in the United States, which finances and supports settlement activities and individuals involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, in addition to the terrorist organization ‘Hilltop Youth – Price Tag’ and settlers involved in terrorist activities against Palestinians, such as Yitzhak Levi-Villant, the security coordinator for the ‘Yitzhar’ settlement, Zohar Sobeh, Eitan Jordani, Avihai Suissa, Moshe Sharvit, Zvi Bar Yosef, Elisha Yard and other terrorists.
Under the US sanctions decree, ‘settlers and outposts in the form of farms that ‘Amana’ plays a major role in developing settlements in the West Bank, from which settlers launch violent attacks against Palestinians are terrorist. In general, Amana actively uses outpost farms, supporting by financing them, granting them loans, and helping them build infrastructureto expand the settlements and take control of Palestinian land. It is responsible for individuals and groups that commit violence against civilians in the occupied West Bank, violence that has claimed the lives of 19 Palestinians since Oct. 7, 2023.
The sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on a number of terrorist settlers and a number of settlement entities that support the establishment of terrorist settlement outposts and pastoral farms, have become a thing of the past. They were expected after the results of the US presidential elections, which took place last Nov. and after the names of a number of officials, who Trump intends to assign important ministerial portfolios in his administration were leaked, such as, Marco Rubio, who explained during a Senate hearing mid of this month that the sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on Israeli settlers will be lifted immediately after the start of President Trump’s term without appreciating the consequences of a decision of this kind and at a time when the West Bank is witnessing an increase in the level of violence by these settlers against Palestinian citizens and their property.
Thus, the moment Donald Trump administration lift sanctions on settlers, who practice terrorism against Palestinian citizens, individuals and groups, such as, the Palestinian Bedouin and pastoral communities, which are being displaced from their areas, coincides with the decision of the Minister of the Occupation Army to stop the administrative detention procedures for settlers and release all administrative detainees from the settlers, this clearly means providing a protective umbrella by a political decision from the American and Israeli administrations for forms of terrorism that the West Bank has not witnessed before.
Israeli right-wing parties and settlers welcomed US President Trump s decision to lift sanctions on settlers and right-wing settlement entities that commit crimes against Palestinian citizens. The leader of the far-right ‘Jewish Power Pparty’, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said: ‘I congratulate the new US President Trump on the historic decision to lift the sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on settlers in the West Bank.’
As for Smotrich, he commented on the ‘X’ platform, saying: ‘I sincerely thank President Trump for his just decision to lift the sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on settlers and activists in right-wing organizations.’ Meanwhile, Gia Yifrach, head of the ‘Ma ale Adumim’ settlement council, suggested naming a settlement project in the E1 area east of Jerusalem, which includes the confiscation of 12,000 dunams of Palestinian land to build more than 4,000 settlement units and several hotels to connect the aforementioned settlement to the city of Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee, according to Haaretz Newspaper, last Thursday, placed on its agenda, coinciding with the inauguration of Trump as President of the United States of America, three settlement plans: a religious school for the Haredim in Sheikh Jarrah, 9,000 new settlement units in northeastern Jerusalem on the airport land, and 1,100 new settlement units in the Givat HaShaked settlement on the lands of the Sharafat village, west of Beit Safafa and north of the city of Beit Jala.
Within this context, the settlers found an opportunity over the past week to spread terror in a number of areas in the West Bank, driven by a clear euphoria after the Army Minister Yisrael Katz decided to cancel administrative detentions of terrorist settlers and the leak of information about the new US administration’s intention to lift sanctions on a number of settlers and their terrorist entities, which provided support for these settlers and strengthened their readiness to attack Palestinian citizens, according to what ‘Haaretz’ reported last Wednesday, citing Israeli security sources. In addition, the decline in law enforcement against them provided an additional incentive.
‘Haaretz’ added that the police brigade in the West Bank, which is responsible for enforcing the law in the settlements and towards the settlers, ‘is not working properly against manifestations of violence, and in many cases police officers arrive at the sites of attacks with a significant delay.’ According to the newspaper, the occupation s ‘Civil Administration unit’ receives nightly reports about settlers attacks on Palestinians and about the burning of vehicles and buildings in Palestinian villages, and that the settlers carry out these attacks publicly through WhatsApp groups under the name ‘Liberation of Terrorists’, in which they call for gatherings at central road junctions and to attack Palestinian citizens in their villages and towns.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Ordering the halt of construction on two facilities in the Bedouin community of Bir al-Maskoub, east of occupied Jerusalem, and the demolition of a number of facilities and buildings in the Issawiya and Silwan towns, as well as, the removal of iron roofs from a number of commercial facilities in the towns.
- Bulldozing -dir-t roads near the Jaba military checkpoint, northwest of Jerusalem, which were used by citizens due to the strict military measures at the checkpoint, causing severe traffic jams.
- Attacking citizens’ vehicles near the village of Jaba on the road between the village of Jaba and the Hizma town.
- Forcing Jerusalemite Sufian Alian from Sur Baher to forcibly demolish his house after 21 days had passed since the deadline given to him by the court to demolish it. They also forced Jerusalemite Ammar Obeid to demolish a room added to his house in the Obeid Neighborhood in the village of Issawiya. It is known that the room is an addition to his house, and is still under construction. Its area is 32 square meters, and he built it 6 months ago.
Hebron:
- Chasing citizens and shepherds in a number of communities in Masafer Yatta.
- Attacking Issa Awad’s family and attempted to steal a herd of livestock from residents there. They also chased citizen Ali al-Hamamdeh and prevented him from grazing his sheep in the Bir Ma’in area, they also stormed the house of Osama Hamamdeh and conducted a provocative tour around it, while dozens of settlers attacked citizens’ vehicles with stones at the eastern entrance to the town of Dura and al-Fawar Refugee Camp, causing damage to a number of them, amid chanting racist slogans calling for the killing and displacement of Palestinians.
- Uprooting 150 olive seedlings belonging to Amer Al-Harini, Khalil Muhammad Al-Harini, Thalji Al-Harini, and Badr Rabi’ Al-Harini, in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.
Bethlehem:
- Paving a settlement road in the lands of Al-Jab a village, southeast of Bethlehem, from the western side of the village, reaching Wadi Fukin village and ending in Husan village, along a length of 5 km. This arbitrary measure will lead to the seizure of hundreds of dunams of agricultural land, and deprive farmers from accessing their lands located west of the road.
- Chopping trees in the lands of Nahalin town, where they cut down 50 old and fruitful olive trees in the Ein Fares area west of the town, belonging to citizen Ali Abu Ghayatha.
- Establishing a pastoral settlement outpost and installed two large ‘barracks’ for raising livestock in the Ein Fares area.
- Notifying citizens not to access their lands in Nahalin town, considering it is a closed military zone that is prohibited from access, as its area is 1,000 dunams.
- Injuring citizen Awad Abd Ubayyat, 40 after the settlers unleashed a dog that attacked him while he was herding his sheep in the eastern area of the village.
Ramallah:
- Storming agricultural lands in the Al-Mughayir village, accompanied by dogs in the Al-Khalayel area, under the protection of the occupation army that was deployed in the area, and fired live ammunition in the air to spread fear among the citizens.
- Gathering on the main street near the Turmusaia town, and attacked citizens vehicles and closed the road.
- Attacking citizens’ vehicles near the Ein Siniya Military Checkpoint, with stones and Molotov cocktails that led to the burning of 4 vehicles and material damage of others. They also burned a room at the entrance to a house in the town of Ein Siniya belonging to citizen Theib Sharakah.
- Gathering near the Atara Military Checkpoint, and in the Ein Al-Haramiyah area and attacked citizens vehicles with stones that led to material damage to a number of them.
- Attacking citizens vehicles with stones at the Ain Ayoub Junction near the Kharbatha Bani Harith village, causing material damage to a number of them. They closed the junction to the neighboring villages, and others gathered under the protection of the occupation forces at the entrance to the village of Barqa and in the area of Mount Tal al-Asur in Kafr Malik, and placed nails on the road to damage the tires of citizens vehicles.
Nablus:
- Setting up a caravan on citizens lands north of Qusra village, injured a citizen in the Yatma village, south of Nablus.
- Attacking citizens homes with stones, and a man was taken to the hospital for treatment du to injuries he sustained by settlers attack near the Hawara checkpoint and the Za tara military checkpoint.
Salfeet:
- Chopping about 100 olive trees in the Yasuf village, belonging to Ahmed Mustafa Saleh and Zuhair Abdul Razek in the Al-Sarab area.
- Storming the Bir Abu Ammar area, northwest of the Qarawet Bani Hassan town, which is considered a park for the town s residents, a place for horse races and youth sports activities, and there is a water spring there used to water livestock.
Qalqilia:
- Attacking citizens properties with stones, including shops on the main Qalqilya-Nablus road, near the Jinsafot village.
- Attacking the Al-Funduq and Jinsafut villages, torched a number of vehicles and attacking shops and homes located on the main road. This attack led to the burning of some homes, a nursery and a carpentry shop located on the main road, in addition to vehicles and a bulldozer. A citizen was injured in the head in the attack while confronting settlers who set a fire near his home in the village. The Red Crescent Society stated that its crews dealt with 21 injuries in the village, 12 of them as a result of assault and 9 as a result of inhaling toxic gas.
Tulkarem:
- Storming the Kor village, south of Tulkarm, and toured its agricultural lands and neighborhoods, and attacked citizens at gunpoint.
Jordan Valley:
- Assaulting 2 young men, Walid Khaled Khudairy and Sami Raed Sawafta, from Tubas, while they were in Khirbet Ibziq, northeast of Tubas that led to transfer them to hospital for treatment.
- Setting up caravans hundreds of meters away from a pastoral settlement outpost on citizens’ lands west of the Bardala village in the northern Jordan Valley, and bulldozed lands west of the village.
- Storming the Shalal Al-Auja Mixed Elementary School in the Ras Al-Ein Bedouin community and destroyed property belonging to the school.




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