illegal outpost

A mural of Awdah Hathaleen in the community center with added writings by friends and family. (Omri Eran Vardi)

A year after Awdah’s killing, Umm Al-Khair struggles for its own survival

The community is facing violent settler expansion and the looming threat of demolition, while the Israeli who shot the beloved activist remains free.

By Basel Adra July 29, 2026

Israeli settlers fly an Israeli flag on the house of Ahed Khatib, inside Area B near Aqarba, in the West Bank, February 2026. (Oren Ziv)

‘Erasing the lines’: How settler outposts are seizing new regions of the West Bank

After decades consolidating their control over Area C, Israeli settlers are expanding into Areas B and A — nominally under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction — and displacing communities, a joint investigation reveals.

By Oren Ziv and Ariel Caine March 24, 2026

Palestinians pack their belongings into a truck in Ras Ein al-Auja, in the southern Jordan Valley, after Israeli settlers erected an outpost inside the village, January 8, 2026. (Oren Ziv)

The calculated erasure of Ras Ein Al-Auja

Israeli state-backed settler violence is displacing the southern Jordan Valley’s last herding community, advancing efforts to empty Area C of Palestinians.

By Oren Ziv January 16, 2026

Latest

Ahmad Mousa Al-Mash’ala next to a van torched by Israeli settlers during an arson attack in the West Bank village of Jaba, November 18, 2025. (Oren Ziv)

‘The fire devoured everything’: Israeli settlers unleash wave of arson attacks

At least five West Bank villages have been targeted as settlers lit Palestinian homes, cars, and a mosque ablaze, while the army delayed emergency vehicles.

By Basel Adra November 18, 2025

Settlers seen in their newly-established outpost inside the Palestinian village of Maghayer Al-Dir, in the West Bank, May 21, 2025. (Oren Ziv)

In a single week, a new settler outpost erases an entire Palestinian community

After building on their land, Israeli settlers attacked and drove out residents of Maghayer Al-Dir, one of the last villages in the southern Jordan Valley.

By Oren Ziv May 26, 2025

Mourners at the funeral of Khalil Salem Ziadeh in Wadi Rahal, August 27, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

‘If you try to defend yourself, you’re dead’: A West Bank village’s night of terror

Palestinians in Wadi Rahal were left to pick up the pieces after settler-soldiers from a nearby outpost stormed the village and killed one resident.

By Oren Ziv August 29, 2024

Dana Mills, the interim executive director of Peace Now. (Oren Ziv)

Peace Now is taking direct action against settler outposts. Can it succeed?

The anti-occupation group is pushing the Zionist left to adopt more disruptive tactics, says interim head Dana Mills. But are there limits to its approach?

By Oren Ziv and Meron Rapoport August 16, 2022

Left-wing Israeli activists gather for a photo in front of a bulldozer ahead of a protest organized by Peace Now against the Homesh outpost, May 28, 2022. (Oren Ziv)

Israel’s peace camp is taking up bulldozers to fight the occupation

A demo against a settler outpost shows how Israeli activists are increasingly adopting radical direct action following the anti-Netanyahu protests.

By Oren Ziv and Haggai Matar June 1, 2022

Jewish settlers prepare to resist an evacuation operation at the illegal outpost of Amona, February 1, 2017. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Resource: Tracking Israel’s support for illegal outposts

The Israeli government has been quietly authorizing illegal settlement outposts in recent years. A criminal activity, the trend also exposes Palestinians to increased violence and harassment from settlers. Text by Rachel Shenhav-Goldberg Illegal settlement outposts have become increasingly regularized during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s tenure, according to a recent report from Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now. In a…

By +972 Resources September 20, 2019

Israeli soldiers speak to an Israeli activist during a party at a recently-demolished settlement outpost near Hebron. (screenshot)

WATCH: Israeli soldiers party in demolished settlement outpost

The Givat Sorek outpost, built on private Palestinian land, was destroyed by Israeli soldiers just a week ago. Now it has become an area for soldiers to relax and barbecue. Soldiers from the Golani Brigade were filmed relaxing and barbecuing in an illegal settlement outpost near Hebron on Tuesday. The outpost was destroyed just a…

By Haggai Matar April 8, 2015

Policeman detaining Ta'ayush activists Screenshot

WATCH: Israeli activists detained for filming illegal settlement construction

In the video below (filmed by an Israeli Ta’ayush activist on Monday April 1 and subtitled quickly by yours truly) a policeman approaches Israeli activists who regularly go to the South Hebron Hills (he knows all their names already) and informs them they are being detained. For what? For filming illegal construction at an illegal outpost…

By Mairav Zonszein April 3, 2013

Protected by an Israeli soldier, a masked settler threatens activists with a stick in front of Ma´on settlement during a solidarity march in the South Hebron Hills, September 22, 2012. (photo: Activestills.org)

Testimony: Israeli activist blindfolded, mugged, beaten by settlers

An Israeli activist decided to spend his Yom Kippur in the South Hebron Hills, providing humanitarian and political support to Palestinian residents there who suffer daily from military occupation and settler violence, and who have also come under threat of being uprooted from their homes to make way for an IDF firing zone. As he told…

By Mairav Zonszein October 5, 2012

Israeli and Palestinians demonstrate to evacuate the Migron settlement outpost in 2008. (photo: Activestills)

Migron evacuation proves Israel’s land policy is political, not legal

The question is whether Israel will ever realize that regardless of the somersaults it does to try and establish legitimate claims to to the land, its power will one day run out. So, Migron, the little illegal outpost that made big headlines in recent months, was finally evacuated in its entirety on Sunday, after years of…

By Mairav Zonszein September 4, 2012