Israel has issued 49 military orders targeting 2,093 dunams (517 acres/2.09 km²) of privately owned Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank since January, the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said on Saturday.
It said the orders, issued under “security measures,” do not formally confiscate the land or transfer ownership. They impose sweeping legal and physical restrictions, however, by allowing the removal or trimming of trees, restricting access to the land and preventing its cultivation.
The commission said the measures are mainly concentrated around illegal Israeli settlements, settlement roads, the separation barrier and military sites, effectively expanding Israeli control over Palestinian land without formally changing ownership.
Israel issued 47 orders covering 1,613 dunams during 2025, compared with 49 orders affecting 2,093 dunams in the first half of 2026, according to the commission.
750,000 illegal settlers on stolen land
It said the increase reflects growing use of such military orders to expand settlement-related infrastructure and tighten restrictions on Palestinian access to their land.
The commission’s semiannual report said Israeli occupiers carried out 3,488 attacks in the occupied West Bank during the first half of 2026, including assaults on Palestinian communities, arson attacks, shootings, land seizures and the establishment of settlement outposts.
Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog, estimates that 500,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank, in addition to 250,000 in occupied East Jerusalem.
Since the genocide in Gaza began in October 2023, the occupied West Bank has witnessed intensified Israeli military offensives and illegal Israeli settler violence, which, according to official Palestinian figures, have killed at least 1,175 Palestinians, injured 12,919, displaced 33,000 and led to the arrest of nearly 24,000 people.
