Annexation

Israeli soldiers from Netzah Yehuda Battalion and family members attend a swearing-in ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, on July 10, 2024. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90

The ‘gray arm’ of Israeli annexation

A settler-led wing of the army is driving Palestinian displacement on the state's behalf. But as Yagil Levy explains, this devil's bargain comes not without costs.

By Amos Brison September 25, 2026

Israeli settlers march to celebrate Israel's 71st Independence Day, near the Havat Gilad settlement, in the northern West Bank, May 9, 2019. (Hillel Maeir/Flash90)

Armed Israeli settler ‘hikes’ aren’t new — but they’re becoming deadly

A spate of recent killings have resulted from settlers trekking the West Bank under military escort, expanding Jewish presence at Palestinians’ expense.

By Aharon Porath and Roei Kleitman August 26, 2026

Israeli soldiers inspect a Palestinian car in the West Bank city of Hebron, August 13, 2024. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

Under Israel’s watch, Palestinian gangs are sowing chaos in the West Bank

By turning a blind eye to armed criminals while constraining Palestinian police, Israel is ‘engineering lawlessness’ to deepen its control over the territory.

By Sami Sawalmeh August 25, 2026

Latest

Dalia Hatuqa. (Courtesy)

PODCAST: Where is the PA as Israel annexes the West Bank?

Dalia Hatuqa unpacks the bureaucratic transformation of Israel’s control over the occupied territory, and the Palestinian Authority’s inability to confront it.

By +972 Magazine February 27, 2026

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich holds a press conference with Israeli settler leaders, at the Finiance Ministry, in Jerusalem, September 3, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Has Israel crossed the annexation threshold in the West Bank?

Six ‘game-changing’ recent cabinet decisions may push the occupation past a tipping point toward permanent Israeli rule, says Yesh Din director Ziv Stahl.

By Dikla Taylor-Sheinman February 18, 2026

Tawfiq Bani Odeh, a resident of the Palestinian village of Atuf, with his flock of sheep on Mount Tammun in the northern Jordan Valley, January 23, 2026. (Oren Ziv)

Israel’s new separation wall will sever Jordan Valley from rest of West Bank

The army is issuing evacuation orders and seizing land to prepare a massive barrier — part of a wider project to annex the Palestinian ‘breadbasket.’

By Oren Ziv February 16, 2026

Palestinian residents and activists gather for a screening of "Coexistence my Ass!" in late December. (Mohanad Qufisha)

In Hebron’s hyper-militarized Old City, a Palestinian cinema opens its doors

The city's first movie theater in nearly a century is defying Israeli movement restrictions and settler attacks to screen political films for locals and activists.

By Basel Adra February 2, 2026

Graffiti sprayed on ancient archeological artifacts, in Sebastia, near the West Bank city of Nablus, May 12, 2025. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

Israel preparing largest ever act of ‘archeological cleansing’ in West Bank

Subordinating scientific value to colonial expansion, Israeli archeologists are putting up no resistance as the state moves to expropriate swaths of Sebastia.

By Alon Arad December 11, 2025

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a press conference announcing his plans to approve more than 3,000 housing units in the E1 settlement project between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, August 14, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

As the world recognizes a Palestinian state, Israel’s E1 plan moves to bury it

The long-frozen settlement project would sever East Jerusalem from the West Bank, fragment Palestinian communities, and advance permanent annexation.

By Shatha Yaish September 12, 2025

Bulldozers operated by Israeli settlers and soldiers uproot olive trees near the village of Al-Mughayyir, in the occupied West Bank, August 23, 2025. (Avishay Mohar/Activestills)

Israeli army, settlers unite in collective punishment of Al-Mughayyir

The siege of the West Bank village and destruction of its olive groves were a joint exercise in intimidation and re-engineering of Palestinian space.

By Oren Ziv and Shatha Yaish August 27, 2025

Rafi Greenberg, Tel Aviv, June 2024. (Oren Ziv)

‘It comes with the territory’: How Israel’s archaeologists legitimize annexation

Weaponizing antiquities is part of Israel's colonial legacy, says Rafi Greenberg, whose colleagues have largely remained silent about Gaza's destruction.

By Dikla Taylor-Sheinman July 1, 2025

Palestinians wait at closed Israeli gates at the entrance to Hebron, in the West Bank, June 14, 2025. (Mosab Shawer)

With Iran war as pretext, Israel suffocates the West Bank

After striking Tehran, the army closed hundreds of gates to seal Palestinians inside towns and strand them on roads — proof of annexation in all but name.

By Shatha Yaish June 19, 2025

Community members in Khirbet Samra loading their flock into trucks before their departure on Saturday, March 1, 2025. (Dikla Taylor-Sheinman)

Israeli settler violence is rapidly emptying Jordan Valley of Palestinians

Khirbet Samra is one of the last Palestinian shepherding communities in the West Bank’s eastern flank. State-backed settler militias are driving them out.

By Dikla Taylor-Sheinman and Georgia Gee March 19, 2025