Israel issues seizure orders for roads near reestablished Ganim and Kadim, Palestinian commission says

Israel's military has issued three new orders to take control of Palestinian land in the northern West Bank for roads and security strips near settlements, the Palestinian Authority's Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said on Tuesday. Two of the orders cover land near Ganim and Kadim. Israel evacuated those two settlements in 2005 and has moved to reestablish them this year.

The orders are dated Oct. 28 and run until Dec. 31, 2028, the commission said. Together they cover about 37.7 dunums, or 9.3 acres, in the Ramallah and Jenin areas. A dunum is 1,000 square meters. The areas are small, but Palestinian officials say they are part of a wider pattern. Israeli ministers say the return to the northern West Bank strengthens Israel's security.

This report sets out what the orders say, how they fit into the government's policy in the northern West Bank, and how each side describes them.

What the three orders cover

The figures below come from the commission's statements, as carried by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA and by Sada News.

• Order T/48/26 covers 26.473 dunums of land belonging to Deir Nizam, Umm Safa and Atara, northwest of Ramallah. It is for a road named the "Ataret–Neve Tzuf Emergency Route," WAFA reported. Ataret and Neve Tzuf, also known as Halamish, are Israeli settlements.
• Order T/133/26 covers 8.645 dunums of land in Deir Abu Da'if, east of Jenin. It is meant to complete a security strip about 1,800 meters long around Ganim, which Israeli documents call the "Ganim perimeter route," Sada News reported.
• Order T/135/26 covers 2.560 dunums of land in Qabatiya, south of Jenin. It is for a security road about 500 meters long that the documents call the "Kadim emergency route," Sada News reported.

The orders give the military commander exclusive possession of the land shown on attached maps, the commission said. It noted that a seizure order of this type does not itself transfer ownership. The land stays under military control for a set period.

Of the land in the Ramallah-area order, 5.891 dunums, or about 22.3%, is classed by Israel as "state land," the commission said. The other 20.582 dunums fall outside that class. The commission said the mix shows how land classes and military orders "are used in tandem" to secure land for settlement roads.

The commission also said the maps show long, narrow strips around Ganim and Kadim. In its view, that means the immediate aim is not to take large areas at once. Instead, it said, the aim is to reorganize movement, access and control around the two settlements.

What Palestinian officials said

Tariq Ighbaria, who handles the settlement file for the Jenin governorate, told WAFA that the Deir Abu Da'if land lies near Ganim. He said the order is one of a series of steps aimed at Palestinian-owned land near settlements and outposts in the governorate.

Ighbaria said Israeli authorities often cite military and security needs to seize land. In his view, that bars owners from reaching or using their property and limits the growth of Palestinian towns while letting settlements grow.

WAFA's report said the Jenin area is also seeing more seizure orders, new settlement roads, the leveling of farmland and the uprooting of trees. The commission said the Ramallah-area road could link settlements, outposts and expansions around Ataret and Halamish. Depending on how the order is carried out, it said, it may further limit owners' access to nearby plots.

The return to Ganim and Kadim

Israel evacuated four settlements in the northern West Bank in 2005, along with its pullout from Gaza: Ganim, Kadim, Homesh and Sa-Nur. The Knesset partly repealed the Disengagement Law for that area in 2023, JNS reported. Israel's security cabinet gave legal status to 19 West Bank settlements in December 2025, in a move proposed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz, The Jerusalem Post reported.

About 30 families moved back to Ganim on Aug. 13, the Post reported. Settlers had already returned to Homesh and Sa-Nur. Kadim was expected to follow, Ynet reported at the time.

Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry with powers over civil affairs in the West Bank, spoke at the Ganim ceremony. "We are erasing the disgrace of expulsion and strengthening Judea and Samaria, the security belt of the State of Israel," he said, according to the Post. "When we are in Ganim and Samaria, there is security in Afula, Hadera, Kfar Saba and Netanya."

JNS reported that Smotrich said 11 new communities would be set up in the northern West Bank, including the four that were evacuated. Katz said at the ceremony: "This is our home, this is the Land of Israel, this is where we will remain forever." Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, called it "a moment of historic rectification."

Israel's military and its Civil Administration had not commented in public on the three orders in the sources reviewed for this report. The commission's statements are the only public account of their contents so far.

Earlier seizure orders this year

The 1995 Oslo II accord split the West Bank into three areas. Areas A and B, about 40% of the land, are under Palestinian civil control, according to Peace Now. Area C, about 60%, is under full Israeli control. Area A, which holds the main Palestinian cities, is also under Palestinian security control on paper, though the Israeli military has operated there since the early 2000s. The commission did not say which area the land in the three new orders falls in.

The new orders follow larger ones in the same area. In July, the head of Israel's Central Command, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, signed 15 seizure orders covering about 200 dunums, Peace Now reported. Part of that land lies in Area A, which the 1995 Oslo II accord placed under full Palestinian control. The orders are for a road between two planned settlements, Emek Dotan near Arraba and Noa north of Qabatiya.

Peace Now, an Israeli group that opposes settlements, said it was the first time since the Oslo Accords that seizure orders in Area A had been used for settlers' needs rather than for a clear or temporary security need. It said the security cabinet has decided to set up 104 new settlements, including 19 in the northern West Bank.

Amnesty International said in September that the July orders mostly cover privately owned land of villages in the Jenin governorate. It said the Jenin governor's office had told it that enforcement had begun.

How each side frames the orders

Israeli ministers frame the return to the northern West Bank as a matter of security and historic right. In their view, the settlements form a "security belt" for cities inside Israel. Roads and perimeter strips around them would serve that purpose.

Palestinian officials frame the same orders as a step in taking over land. They say "military purposes" is a pretext, and that the strips around Ganim and Kadim cut owners off from their farms.

Peace Now frames the orders as part of a wider government policy. "The government's actions in Areas A and B are not isolated events," the group said. "They are part of a broader policy aimed at weakening the Palestinian Authority." It said the government was "playing with fire" by ignoring international commitments.

Amnesty frames them as a breach of international law. "Under international law, an occupying power must not confiscate land in an occupied territory unless absolutely necessary for military reasons," the group said. It said that test does not cover settlement growth. Amnesty urged states with close ties to Israel to press it to rescind the orders.

The wider West Bank picture

The orders come during a tense olive harvest. The UN has recorded a record month of settler attacks, and the PA logged 3,133 incidents in October. In the south, Israeli forces left Hebron after a 10-day operation.

The future of settlement policy may also depend on Israel's next government. Smotrich told the Ganim ceremony in August that "the Eisenkot-Lieberman-Golan government wants to destroy all of this," the Post reported. Coalition talks after the Oct. 27 election are still in their early stages.

What to watch

Court challenges are one possible next step. Residents and landowners petitioned Israel's High Court of Justice over another road being advanced through a seizure order, the Al-Eizariya–A-Za'ayyem road near Ma'ale Adumim, Peace Now reported. The court issued an interim order barring work there until further notice. No petition against the three new orders has been reported so far.

The commission has not said whether work has begun on the new routes. The orders run until the end of 2028.

For how 567politics handles sources and disputed claims, see our methodology.

About this report

This report draws on statements by the Palestinian Authority's Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission as carried by WAFA and Sada News; WAFA's interview with Jenin official Tariq Ighbaria; reports by The Jerusalem Post, JNS and Ynet on the return to Ganim; and statements by Peace Now and Amnesty International. Land areas are as stated by the commission. The acre figure is a 567politics conversion. Times are Eastern.