During the Gaza war, Israeli authorities rapidly reconfigured control and access across the occupied West Bank, introducing new checkpoints, closed military seam zones and expanded land seizures that Palestinians say amount to de facto annexation. Israel frames the moves as security measures rather than an official annexation policy.
At a small Palestinian elementary school near Jerusalem, students gather each morning while teachers often arrive late after delays at a newly established military checkpoint. Teachers who once needed only ID cards now require permits to reach the classroom, after villages were cut off by gates and new movement rules.
Beit Iksa, the town housing the school, was declared this fall a seam zone, placing it under a closed-border military designation. The Israeli military says entry and exit now require permits to safeguard Israeli citizens. Palestinians describe chaotic daily bottlenecks: construction crews, teachers and water trucks waiting to be processed at checkpoints, where soldiers enforce rules that can change without notice.
Local officials say the digital permit systems and frequent hold-ups have left communities effectively isolated. One deputy mayor summed up the sentiment, saying authorities appear to want the land while discouraging residents from staying. NPR asked the Israeli military about whether these moves signal a step toward annexation; the military did not respond. Earlier this year, far-right lawmakers won a preliminary parliamentary vote to annex parts of the West Bank, a proposal criticized by some US politicians as political theater, though Israel maintains annexation is not its official policy.
Many Palestinians say annexation has been underway for years through checkpoints, movement restrictions and settlement growth, and that recent measures have accelerated a process now taking shape as a crescent of restricted areas around Jerusalem. About half a million Israeli settlers live in the West Bank; more than three million Palestinians live there but face increasing barriers to entering Jerusalem, the city Palestinians hope to claim as the capital of a future state.
On Road 60, a major north–south highway, crews have cleared terraced farmland and erected fenced buffer zones. One resident standing among the stumps of his family’s olive grove recalled land first taken in 1994 for the road. He had welcomed the route then, believing it would raise land values, but says the highway serves Israeli settlements with exits and access that bypass Palestinian towns. Recently, authorities widened buffer zones alongside the road, further reducing Palestinian access and property.
Official Palestinian figures show that during the two-year Gaza war Israel seized tens of thousands of acres in the West Bank, roughly the same amount taken in the previous decade. The United Nations has urged Israel to halt settlement expansion, but construction has accelerated, with new infrastructure such as large water pipelines oriented toward Israeli developments rather than Palestinian villages.
At the seam-zone school, the principal struggles to keep classes running amid teacher shortages and fear of unpredictable commutes. Some families consider relocating to Ramallah to avoid daily time losses and the stress of checkpoint delays. This year Israeli operations also displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians from refugee camps in the West Bank; alongside forced removals, many more are leaving voluntarily as living conditions deteriorate.
From rooftops in affected villages residents point to new multi-story buildings in Jerusalem and clusters of modern construction on nearby hills as visible signs that the landscape is being reshaped to favor settlers and tighten control over Palestinian movement. For many, the view that once faced Jerusalem now looks out over settlements and roads that isolate communities. As these changes accumulate while international attention remains focused on Gaza, residents fear the map of the West Bank is being rewritten in ways that make a contiguous, sovereign Palestinian state increasingly difficult to achieve.