RAMALLAH, September 9, 2026 (WAFA) – Three Israeli human rights organizations said on Wednesday that settlement expansion and land seizures are spreading deeper into the occupied West Bank, increasingly isolating Palestinian towns from their lands.
A joint report by Yesh Din, Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights, and HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual documented the expansion of land seizure policies, settler violence and movement restrictions. The report said these measures, previously concentrated on small Palestinian communities in Area C, which accounts for around 60% of the West Bank, are now extending to larger towns and wider areas across the territory.
According to the report, what may appear to be separate measures—including settlement expansion, the establishment of pastoral outposts, settler violence and movement restrictions—form a continuous process that is pushing Palestinians away from their lands and confining them to increasingly shrinking areas.
The report examined four cases, including the al-Rummana community in Jericho, where residents reported attacks, harassment and movement restrictions, and the town of Sinjil, where it documented the impact of settlement outposts, fences and closures in isolating residents from their agricultural lands.
The organizations said that “the seizure of Palestinian land, the isolation of towns from their lands, and the fragmentation of Palestinian territorial contiguity collectively constitute part of a process of de facto annexation taking root on the ground.”
They explained that measures implemented for years against small communities in Area C are now extending to entire towns and areas deep inside the West Bank. “The Israeli government is no longer hiding its objective: to annex as much land as possible with the fewest possible Palestinians,” they said.
The organizations added that settlements, outposts, settler terrorism and movement restrictions “work together to achieve the same objective,” describing the developments as a shift from a political project to a reality being imposed on the ground.
Since the current government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu was formed in late 2022, it has approved the establishment of 104 new settlements, while 160 agricultural settlement outposts have actually been established in the West Bank, according to Palestinian data.
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