{"id":547214,"date":"2026-07-18T06:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T06:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/547214\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T06:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T06:13:11","slug":"israels-crimson-thread-military-barrier-is-strangling-the-west-bank-israel-palestine-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/547214\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s \u2018Crimson Thread\u2019 military barrier is strangling the West Bank | Israel-Palestine conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ras al-Ahmar, occupied West Bank \u2013 The drive to Thaer Bisharat\u2019s home should take less than 10 minutes from the main road. Instead, it took three hours.<\/p>\n

Every gate leading into Ras al-Ahmar, in the northern Jordan Valley<\/a>, is shut these days. Such road closures have become the norm rather than the exception, patrolled in shifts by Israeli soldiers and settlers whose roles on the ground have become increasingly difficult to tell apart. The sole access point that remained was a single, winding dirt road, passable only by four-wheel drive vehicles and requiring drivers to evade the roving Israeli patrols.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

During the drive to Thaer\u2019s house, Israeli forces had the area under an even greater lockdown than normal as they were nearby in the al-Buqaia plain, destroying three wells belonging to local Palestinians \u2013 including one owned by a relative of Thaer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

This is some of the most fertile land in the occupied West Bank, where farmers normally tend rows of banana trees alongside crops such as grapes, olives and potatoes. But along the dirt road leading to Thaer\u2019s isolated home, the farms stand half-abandoned, with plastic greenhouse doors open and flapping in the breeze, as crops go thirsty after water was cut off in the area weeks ago by Israeli authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t even run an errand,\u201d said Thaer. \u201cFrom Tamun, the village, it used to take me ten minutes. Now, with the current [dirt] road\u2026 it takes an hour, at best.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was spending the afternoon alone \u2013 his brother and sister-in-law had gone into town that morning for basic necessities. Left by himself, it was easy to feel like a sitting duck.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust this morning, there was a car \u2013 two people in it, dressed in military gear, army-backed,\u201d he said. \u201cThey went to the people living near the banana houses. They took down ID photos, names, phone numbers. And they tell them, \u2018You\u2019ve got 24 hours to leave. Otherwise we\u2019re coming to confiscate everything you\u2019ve got\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, that pressure has escalated from long-standing \u201cclosed military zone\u201d orders issued by the military into outright seizures of private land, alongside the destruction of irrigation pipes, water wells and greenhouses in the barrier\u2019s path \u2013 the sharpest expression yet of an advancing takeover in which settler-outpost expansion and land seizure now work in tandem to squeeze out the Palestinians who remain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey cage us in and suffocate us,\u201d Thaer said.<\/p>\n

\"ThaerThaer Bisharat is always fearful of attack by Israeli settlers or soldiers [Al Jazeera]A trench, an outpost and a series of seizure orders<\/p>\n

That tightening isolation is the result of one of Israel\u2019s newest infrastructure projects in the occupied West Bank: the \u2018Crimson Thread\u2019 barrier. Announced in 2025, the first part of the project combines a trench and military road running roughly 22km between the Ein Shibli and Tayasir checkpoints \u2013 severing the northern Jordan Valley from Tubas to the north and Nablus to the south. Israel says it is intended to prevent weapons smuggling from Jordan, but the route runs several kilometres inside the occupied West Bank rather than along the already-fenced Jordanian border.<\/p>\n

The plan is for the barrier to eventually run for 500km, splitting Palestinians from thousands of hectares of land and creating a barrier that \u2013 in its consequences \u2013 mirrors the separation wall<\/a> on the other side of the West Bank.<\/p>\n

On March 8, Israeli military commander Gilad Shriki visited several Palestinian communities, and, in their words, warned residents they should leave in preparation for a complete Israeli takeover of the area.<\/p>\n

Then, last month, an Israeli Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for construction of the \u2018Crimson Thread\u2019 barrier to proceed. Since then, the Israeli Civil Administration has moved aggressively. Roughly three kilometres of trenches have already been dug, destroying Palestinian infrastructure in its path \u2013 including irrigation pipes, farmland and greenhouses, all while severing farmers from land on the other side.<\/p>\n

The route of the \u2018Crimson Thread\u2019 project was stitched together with nine land seizure orders \u2013 a \u201cclear escalation\u201d of a decades-long effort by Israeli authorities to remove Palestinians in the area, according to Dror Etkes, who tracks Israeli land policy for Israeli NGO Kerem Navot. What started as checkpoints, settlement building and the designation of Palestinian lands as military firing zones \u201chave in recent years become much more aggressive \u2013 through settler attacks, military raids, confiscation of property and denial of access to firing zones\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now, such military land seizure orders allow Israeli authorities to \u201cseize whatever land it deems necessary\u201d for security purposes, says Etkes.<\/p>\n

According to the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, Israeli authorities issued 49 military land-seizure orders in the first half of this year \u2013 already exceeding the 47 issued in all of 2025.<\/p>\n

Thaer scoffs at the official rationale. \u201cIt\u2019s not a military road,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t dig a trench two and a half, three metres deep for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Israel\u2019sIsrael\u2019s \u2018Crimson Thread\u2019 barrier has broken irrigation pipes and damaged wells that are vital to local Palestinian populations [Courtesy of Thaer Bisharat]\u2018Effectively in a prison\u2019<\/p>\n

Etkes said the barrier accomplishes two things at once: \u201cblocking Palestinians\u2019 ability to enter everything east of the barrier\u201d \u2013 where most of their farmland is \u2013 while linking existing illegal settlements to a new outpost being built along the route, on Jabal Tamun, that he expects to further impact 8-9,000 dunams (8 to 9sq km) of Palestinian agricultural land, most of it in Area B.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of communities aren\u2019t there anymore \u2013 they\u2019ve been forced to leave, which convinced [Israeli authorities] that the time was right for the next move,\u201d said Etkes, listing emptied communities such as Khirbet Samra and Khirbet Yarza.<\/p>\n

A Kerem Navot map shows the \u2018Crimson Thread\u2019 barrier route curling around Khirbet Yarza \u2013 but by the time construction reached it, Khirbet Yarza was already gone, with its residents displaced by settlers months earlier.<\/p>\n

Mahdi Daraghmeh, who heads the al-Maleh village council, has watched the same pattern unfold throughout the hamlets he oversees. \u201cSettler terror and fear have pushed many families to leave,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the communities here, 130 families have been displaced \u2013 they\u2019ve abandoned their structures, their homes, their land. And now they\u2019ve lost their livelihoods \u2013 they have nothing left to live on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the June Supreme Court ruling, Israeli authorities have carried out near-daily operations in the area, cutting water supplies, destroying tanks and confiscating tractors and other farming equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey confiscated the tractors and water tanks from us here,\u201d said Thaer. \u201cSo they claim these tractors and tanks are a threat to their security. A threat to your security, how?\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, settlers brought caravans into the area east of Ras al-Ahmar, positioning themselves inside territory expected to be cut off from Palestinian communities.<\/p>\n

On June 16, bulldozers demolished livestock infrastructure at the home of Bilal Bani Oudeh, a friend of Thaer\u2019s, and warned him to leave within 24 hours. He refused, so that night, settlers returned and brutally assaulted him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe nearly died,\u201d Thaer said. \u201cAfter they attacked him, they talked about tying him to a rope behind a vehicle. They took everything he owned.\u201d<\/p>\n

With authorities working assiduously to keep observers from documenting or photographing the \u2018Crimson Thread\u2019 operation, excavation has uprooted hundreds of olive and grape trees while repeatedly severing irrigation pipelines serving tens of thousands of dunams. On the morning of July 14 alone, Israeli authorities destroyed three wells in al-Buqaia \u2013 including one belonging to Bisharat\u2019s relative \u2013 and confiscated pumps and equipment.<\/p>\n

The Atuf village council \u2013 one of those affected by the new barrier \u2013 put that single day\u2019s damage at more than four million shekels ($1.3m).<\/p>\n

Already, this destruction has decimated the local economy in weeks, wiping out the summer harvest. \u201cThere\u2019s no agricultural season to speak of,\u201d Daraghmeh said. \u201cMost of the land hasn\u2019t been cultivated and what has been cultivated is for the settlers\u2019 benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the trench is finished, cutting communities off from each other and their farmland, residents fear it will mark the end of a Palestinian presence here. \u201cOur communities will have no services, no infrastructure whatsoever,\u201d said Daraghmeh. \u201cNo hospital, no emergency centre, no schools; for all of that, people have to go to the neighbouring town and that will be impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce this trench cuts people off,\u201d he said, \u201cthe people here will effectively be in a prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA long-established illegal Israeli settler outpost located right above a Palestinian village in the Jordan Valley [Al Jazeera]\u2018Give us the rights of the animals\u2019<\/p>\n

With Israeli authorities having shut off water into the area for weeks, one tank now costs Thaer more than 300 shekels ($100), more than triple the previous price. But even transporting water is a perilous pursuit; his brother was recently beaten and held at gunpoint by marauding settlers, who he said stole his phone and robbed him of his money.<\/p>\n

Thaer estimates that agricultural production in the area has collapsed by as much as 90 percent, while many families have already lost half their livestock because they can no longer reach grazing land.<\/p>\n

But among neighbouring communities now erased, Thaer has seen this playbook before: once Palestinians are removed, he says, the settlers take over their lands. \u201cThen suddenly there\u2019s no more \u2018firing zone,’\u201d Thaer said. \u201cA road appears, water arrives, sheep arrive. Life comes back to the place, thank God!<\/p>\n

\u201cSo why do I get told it\u2019s all a military zone?\u201d<\/p>\n

Thaer looked out at the Israeli settlement farms, lush and green in the distance. Around his own property, the ground was parched, littered with half-abandoned equipment. \u201cUnder their \u2018law\u2019, we are treated like animals,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n

Thaer paused. \u201cIsrael always talks about \u2018rights\u2019, \u2018rights\u2019, \u2018rights\u2019,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen someone hits a dog, suddenly, there\u2019s animal rights advocates everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo actually, we don\u2019t even want human rights,\u201d he said. \u201cJust give us the animal rights they talk so much about. At this point, we\u2019d settle for living under that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ras al-Ahmar, occupied West Bank \u2013 The drive to Thaer Bisharat\u2019s home should take less than 10 minutes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2664,85,46,44,47,43,48],"class_list":["post-547214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-features","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-palestine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}