Israeli Military Issues Record Hand Placement Orders for West Bank Settlement Roads

The Israeli army issued seven new hand‑placement orders in a single week, designating a total of 89,514 dunams (about 89 sq km) of privately owned Palestinian land for security‑road construction and barrier extensions. The roads, spanning roughly 17.6 km, connect settlements and outposts in the Ramallah, Jerusalem and Nablus areas, reinforcing settlement infrastructure and restricting Palestinian access to their own land.

The orders, numbered T/111/26, T/42/26, T/41/26, T/38/26, T/31/26, T/30/26 and T/61/26, target specific villages such as Dura al‑Qarʿ, Qusra, Ayn Siniya, Silwad, and Jaba, among others. Officials from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee say this marks a shift from temporary military measures to a permanent tool for expanding settlement geography and consolidating control over the West Bank.

The surge follows a larger yearly increase in such orders, which the committee reports totalled 611 orders for military purposes in its 2026 mid‑year report, highlighting an accelerating strategy of land seizure under the guise of security needs.