Since 7 October 2023, the village of Al-Walajeh, northwest of Bethlehem, has faced a sharp escalation in demolition orders, military aggression, and mobility restrictions. This week, the Balasan Initiative for Human Rights (BIHR) documented increasingly aggressive measures by Israeli forces and authorities in Al-Walajeh, including new demolition notices issued under Jerusalem Municipality jurisdiction, intensified patrols, and cases of vehicle confiscations, further entrenching the Israeli intent to isolate the village and create a coercive environment for its Palestinian residents.
While in recent months, Israeli forces delivered demolition orders targeting at least five homes and an agricultural structure in Al-Walajeh [1], these demolition orders have been issued by the “Civil Administration,” which is an arm of the Israeli Military. However, in a step that can be perceived as the actualization of the “E-1 Plan”, on November 6, 2025, a family received a demolition order directly from the Israeli Jerusalem Municipality [2].
(BIHR – The remains of the home that was demolished on November 8, 2025).
These demolitions are occurring in the occupied areas of the village that were recently unilaterally designated as “Jerusalem Municipality” areas and thus under its authority, where residents face extreme difficulty obtaining building permits. In this context, structures built decades ago in the village are now at risk, with families receiving 72-hour evacuation warnings that their homes will be demolished.
Moreover, Israel has intensified its military presence in the village, notably of “Border Guards” and Israeli army patrols, including the regular stationing of soldiers stationed near the annexation wall and settlement fence lines, repeated threats issued to residents, warnings of being shot if they approach the fences, military patrols entering residential streets late at night, new roadblocks that were set up within the village, and arbitrary stops and questionings of residents.
These practices have created an atmosphere of daily intimidation and surveillance, especially for families whose homes lie closest to the expanding settlement of Gilo.
(BIHR – Annexation Fence at the edge of the settlement Gilo, roads that are used ONLY by the patrolling “Border Guards”)
In addition, Israeli forces have increased vehicle confiscations of the village residents, severely restricting their ability to commute to work or school, limiting access to medical services, and undermining economic activities tied to agriculture and trade.
These measures echo similar patterns previously documented across the West Bank, where vehicle seizures have been used as a coercive tool, further isolating communities already under pressure.
Approximately 30% of Al-Walajeh’s built-up area lies within Area C, which has been subjected to intensified enforcement actions following recent annexation developments under the “E-1 plan”[3].
The settlement of Gilo has expanded rapidly since October 2023, with more than 1,600 new housing units advancing along the village’s northern edge. This expansion has brought increased military activity and emboldened enforcement in adjacent Palestinian areas.
Residents reported that the jurisdictional shift of demolition enforcement from the Civil Administration to the Jerusalem Municipality has created new layers of vulnerability. Without an approved zoning plan for the annexed areas, residents effectively have no legal recourse to obtain building permits, trapping them in a cycle of suffocation until displaced.
The illegality of both Israeli policies and their overall annexation objectives is manifestly clear. Israeli home demolitions and property confiscations in Al-Walajeh must be assessed against the occupying power’s obligations under international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL). Under the Fourth Geneva Convention and customary IHL, an occupying power is prohibited from destroying private property unless “absolutely necessary by military operations”; routine, planning-driven demolitions or mass confiscations for civilian settlement expansion cannot be justified on that basis. When demolitions are combined with settlement plans, as with the broader E1 development that seeks to link Ma’ale Adumim to East Jerusalem, these acts amount to unlawful de facto annexation measures and contribute to the forcible transfer or dispossession of protected persons, which international bodies and human rights monitors have repeatedly concluded as unlawful.
In the context of Al-Walajeh, the pattern is legally significant: documented demolition orders, seizure of agricultural roads and land, and the imposition of restrictive planning regimes raise multiple serious violations and breaches; unlawful destruction of property, discriminatory planning and permitting that denies the right to adequate housing and livelihood, and measures that may amount to population transfer by making continued residence untenable. They therefore trigger state responsibility under IHL/IHRL and warrant remedies including immediate suspension of demolitions and confiscations, restoration or compensation where feasible, independent investigations, and urgent international measures to prevent irreversible changes on the ground that would preclude any solution.
The International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 fundamentally reinforces the illegality of both the very presence of Israel in the oPt, and the settlement enterprise. The ICJ found that Israel’s continued presence constitutes a “wrongful act of a continuing character” and explicitly ordered the cessation of all new settlement activity. The Court held that Israel’s policies and practices, including building and maintaining settlements, violate the prohibition on the acquisition of territory by force and frustrate the Palestinians’ right to self-determination. Crucially, the Court considered that Israel’s settlement expansion in places like E1 is not just a planning issue but part of a broader strategy amounting to de facto annexation: by carving up Palestinian land, altering demographics, and degrading the territorial contiguity necessary for a future Palestinian state, these practices perpetuate a manifest illegal situation under international law that invokes the responsibility of the international community to act immediately towards its cessation.