(MENAFN) Fawzi Rayan, like many residents of Qarawat Bani Hassan, near Salfit in the northern West Bank, is watching settlement expansion accelerate on his land, particularly around the settlement of Kiryat Netivim. Settlers are building new, more intensive structures while Palestinians like Rayan are denied the basic right to expand their homes or cultivate their land. This ongoing struggle for land ownership has been going on for decades. A recent military order signed by Avi Ballut, commander of the Israeli army’s Central Command, paves the way for a new phase in settlement construction. For the first time, the decree authorizes the urban renovation of towns through “intensive” construction, that is to say an increase in the number of housing units in a small area. This contrasts with previous constructions of individual units that spanned larger areas, with fewer settlers. Although this order is new, the practice of intensive settlement construction was already underway in places like Netafim and other settlements in the West Bank.

Rayan, a 53-year-old Palestinian, watches with frustration as settlements like Netafim expand into areas historically belonging to his village. The land, known by its former name “Tayyarat”, and neighboring lands such as “Abu Zweir” and “Khallet Abu Hadid”, are all subject to ongoing construction, leaving Rayan and his family of 50 unable to access their land or to rebuild it. even if they have court decisions proving their ownership. The settlers, who initially built expensive single-family homes, have since moved to multi-unit buildings in the colony. According to Ibrahim Assi, mayor of Qarawat Bani Hassan, around six such buildings have been erected since 2019, despite the lack of legal authorization from the courts. Assi considers this expansion one of the most dangerous settlement operations, as it not only steals land but also leads to an increase in the presence of settlers, which could eventually require more Palestinian land to accommodate the growing population of settlers. The new form of settlement construction allows settlers to save high costs and bring them closer together, thereby strengthening their hold on the area and isolating Palestinian communities.

The growth of settlements like Netafim is particularly concerning because it threatens to connect the settlement to neighboring settlements, including Barkan, creating a “settler belt” that would encircle and isolate 40,000 Palestinians in villages west of Salfit. The village of Qarawat Bani Hassan, with its 9,500 dunums of land, is severely restricted by occupation control. Around 200 dunams of its land have already been conquered by the Netafim settlement, and other settlements continue to encircle the village, with Israeli authorities refusing to approve any expansion of the village’s organizational plan. According to Israel Hayom, new urban development projects are expected to launch soon in the West Bank, focusing on dense and “saturated” construction in settlements. These projects aim to increase the number of housing units per dunum, thereby accelerating settlement expansion and increasing the settler population in these disputed areas.