Israeli settlers have begun bulldozing land in the occupied West Bank to construct a new settler road that threatens to isolate eight Palestinian villages and cut off residents from their groves.
The road, currently in its second phase of construction, is being carved through privately owned Palestinian farmland near the village of Beit Ur al-Fauqa, west of Ramallah, without prior notice or official military orders, according to locals and officials.
Khaled al-Khaldi, a farmer from the village, told The New Arab’s sister site that he discovered bulldozers clearing land adjacent to his olive grove on Sunday, just as he was preparing for the harvest season.
"We weren’t informed – neither I nor any of my neighbours – about any confiscation or road project. If this road reaches my land, it will be nearly impossible to access, even if it doesn't run directly through it," he told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
According to Ali Samara, head of the village council in Beit Ur al-Fauqa, the road will span around two kilometres and is part of a broader project to connect surrounding settlements to Israeli territory and bypass Palestinian areas entirely.
Samara warned that the new route will isolate 1,000 dunams (about 250 acres) of land, leaving just another 1,000 dunams for residential and agricultural use out of the village’s original 4,500-dunam area. The rest, he said, has already been lost to settlement expansion and military restrictions.
"The village will be surrounded from all sides," he said.
From the east, it will be surrounded by Beit Horon, to the south by the settler-only Route 443, to the west by a permanent Israeli military checkpoint, and to the north by the new road being built.
Construction of the road began four months ago in areas close to the neighbouring villages of Deir Ibzi, Ain Arik, and Beituniya and is part of a phased plan to create a continuous settler corridor from the Modi’in Illit settlement bloc to the 1948 Green Line, through occupied West Bank lands.
If completed, the road would sever access to eight Palestinian villages, home to over 40,000 residents, Samara added.
The project, according to Rashad Karaja, head of the village council in Saffa, threatens to create a physical barrier that cuts off the villages from one another and residents from vital services.
"We don’t know if they plan to close the main road entirely or build a new military gate, a bridge, or a tunnel," Karaja said.
"This is a major geographic separation, one that links the settlements while fragmenting Palestinian communities."
Karaja also warned that the road would facilitate settler violence, especially during the olive harvest season, as Palestinians attempting to access their land would have to pass near or across the new settler route.
This is particularly concerning for Palestinian farmers who are routinely attacked by settlers during harvest season.
Local officials say the settlers are moving ahead with heavy machinery without official Israeli military orders or prior notification to Palestinian landowners.
Since extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich took control of the Israeli Civil Administration, local councils report that long-frozen settlement plans have been revived and implemented informally by settlers.
Israel has refused to halt the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, despite them being illegal under international law.
Many Israeli officials want the territory officially annexed by Israel, which has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967.
Raids continue
Israeli forces raided the city of Al-Bireh on Thursday and set up a military checkpoint in the city centre, according to eyewitnesses.
Anadolu Agency said Israeli troops stopped and searched Palestinian vehicles and checked the IDs of several residents.
Tensions escalated when confrontations broke out between young men and the soldiers. Israeli forces reportedly fired live ammunition and tear gas, while Palestinians threw stones at the soldiers before the latter eventually withdrew.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that a team of paramedics was physically assaulted, and their vehicle was temporarily detained by Israeli forces on Wednesday evening in the village of Yamoun, west of the city of Jenin.
Israeli military and settler attacks have also spiked in the West Bank in recent years, particularly since the army began an offensive in the area in January.
More than a thousand Palestinians have been killed in military operations in two years, and over 10,000 others wounded.
Furthermore, some 19,000 have been detained, but not all have been kept in custody.