IDF seizes land in Palestinian-controlled West Bank to connect two new Israeli settlements

The Aliyah ceremony for the Sha-Nur settlement, in April 2026

Matan Golan reports in Haaretz on 29 July 2026:

The IDF will seize land controlled by the Palestinian Authority to connect two new settlements in the northern West Bank – the first instance where PA-controlled land has been seized not for security purposes, according to Israeli NGO Kerem Navot.

IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth signed 15 seizure orders to take control from the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority currently controls 18 percent of the West Bank, known as Area A. It includes all large Palestinian cities and is under full control of the PA according to the 1993 Oslo Accords partition. Entry of Israeli civilians into the area is prohibited by law.

A seizure order allows the military to take possession of real estate or property. International law permits an occupying power to use such orders only for a clearly defined security purpose and temporarily.

However, according to the research organization Kerem Navot, this is the first time the IDF has used such orders in Area A to connect settlements, in a move intended to serve a civilian purpose.   The takeover of the area is taking place against the backdrop of a decision by the Security Cabinet to establish 18 new settlements in the northern West Bank, as part of dozens of settlements that have been authorized by the current government.

This follows the repeal of the Disengagement Law in early 2023, under which some of the settlements are to be established in areas where there has never previously been an Israeli civilian presence.   The first families are expected to move into the new settlements of Noa and Emek Dotan as early as next month.

At the same time, infrastructure work is advancing rapidly in order to establish facts on the ground ahead of October’s elections.

In an investigation published by Haaretz in June, several research organizations warned that the locations of the new settlements had been selected in a way intended to bring about the collapse of the Oslo Accords.   ccording to those organizations, the most practical route between the two settlements necessarily passes through Area A.

“I have never seen anything like this before,” Dror Etkes of the research organization Kerem Navot told Haaretz. He explained that “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.”

According to Etkes, the orders effectively represent “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.”

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