‘A race against time’: Israel’s settlement drive is rapidly transforming Jenin
Shatha Yaish reports in +972 on 5 October 2026:
The roads leading to the northern West Bank city of Jenin are lined with Israeli flags. It is a sight that has become the norm across much of the occupied territory, but here it is still unfamiliar. Over the past few months, Israel has rapidly expanded both military and civilian infrastructure across the Jenin governorate. According to the Israeli NGO Peace now, the government has approved 17 settlements in the Jenin district since the start of 2025, including four that were evacuated in 2005 amid Israel’s “disengagement” from Gaza; the army is also establishing military bases and seizing land for roads intended to connect new and revived settlements.
These moves mark a sharp reversal in an area that saw little Israeli settlement activity for two decades. For Palestinians, the impact is not only territorial: Farmland, roads, and commercial areas are increasingly being cut off, threatening livelihoods and further fragmenting Jenin from within.
How many settlers currently live in these new sites is less clear. Their population is believed to number several hundred, although no reliable consolidated figure exists. Some of the settlements are already established, while others remain at an earlier stage of development.