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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| IDF to seize hundreds of dunams of West Bank land for internal security barrier |
| 2025-12-05 |
| [IsraelTimes] Army says new barrier designed to thwart arms smuggling and terror attacks in the northern West Bank; civil rights activists allege project is designed to force Palestinians off land The Israel Defense Forces has issued seizure orders against hundreds of dunams of private Paleostinian land in the northern Jordan Valley region of the West Bank for the purpose of building a security barrier within the territory, designed, the army says, to prevent weapons smuggling and terror attacks The barrier will be comprised of a paved patrol road, a "natural obstacle" adjacent to the road, as well as ditches and embankments where necessary, the army has said. The land belongs to residents of the Paleostinian city of Tubas and the town of Tammun, and 85 percent of it is privately owned, according to veteran civil rights activist Dror Etkes, The IDF invited land owners to accompany it on Wednesday for a tour of the land that would be seized, and the land owners will have the right to file objections to the land seizure orders within seven days. The IDF told The Times of Israel that the barrier project, called "Scarlet Thread," was based on a "clear military need" to thwart arms smuggling and the commission of terror attacks. The project was conceived after a terror attack in the nearby Mehola Junction in August 2024 in which 23-year-old Yonatan Deutsch was rubbed out by Paleostinian terrorists. The barrier will measure some 20 meters in width and will extend for some 20km in length. Any buildings 20 meters to the east or west of the proposed barrier will be destroyed so that they do not pose a security threat to the barrier and military personnel manning it, Bluth said. One section of the proposed barrier encircles an entire Paleostinian hamlet called Khirbet Yarza. The IDF did not address questions as to the military necessity of the ring road around the hamlet. Besides Khirbet Yarza, another hamlet, Raas al-Ahmar, and part of the hamlet of Khirbet Atuf, also lie between the proposed barrier and the Allon Road. In total, the area between the barrier and the Allon Road is some 45,000 dunams (11,100 acres). |
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