New Land Seizure Order for Water Line through Khan al-Ahmar Advances amid Renewed Push to Demolish Community and Annex E1/Maaleh Adumim Area

On May 19, the Israeli Civil Administration issued a land seizure order for a strip of land running directly through Khan al-Ahmar to enable construction of a water line between the settlements of Mishor Adumim and Kfar Adumim. The order was issued on the same day that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich instructed the Civil Administration to move forward with the community’s evacuation as soon as possible, which the government has long sought to implement.

According to the order, “the temporary seizure of possession of the land” will enable the “execution of excavation work, the laying of infrastructure and any ancillary action for implementation of the water line’s construction.” The order is set to enter into effect 30 days after being placed on site and will remain valid for a period of three years, with the possibility of extension. Although it has been published on the Civil Administration’s website, the order does not yet appear to have been posted in the community itself.

Although the strip of land designated for seizure is limited to 10 meters in width, it still places community structures at immediate risk of destruction and could serve as a pretext for accelerating the community’s evacuation, as well as restricting movement and access to and from the area.

Under the terms of the order, landowners or those who “lawfully inhabit the land” will be entitled to seek compensation for damage incurred during the line’s construction. However, the community’s rights to the land have long been denied recognition by Israel.

Moreover, the water line is clearly not intended to serve Khan al-Ahmar or other Palestinian communities in the area. It is rather designed to upgrade infrastructure for the settler population in the E1/Maaleh Adumim area. Since Kfar Adumim is already connected to water infrastructure, the new line likely indicates preparations for the expansion of Kfar Adumim and/or other nearby settlements. See below for exact location of the water line route.

Longstanding Efforts to Uproot Khan al Ahmar
The Palestinian Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar has long been the target of Israeli efforts to annex the E1/Maaleh Adumim area and remove Palestinian presence from this strategic corridor east of Jerusalem.

The residents of Khan al Ahmar were previously displaced from the Negev in the 1950’s by Israel and subsequently resettled in the respective area. Since 1967, Israeli authorities have refused to recognize the community and/or issue building permits, placing its homes and structures under longstanding threat of demolition. Minister Smotrich has played a central role in this campaign for years, both in and outside government. While active in the Regavim settler organization, he helped spearhead efforts to compel the state to demolish Khan al-Ahmar, including through petitions to the Israeli High Court demanding enforcement of the demolition orders against the community. He has likewise framed the community’s removal as part of broader efforts to block Palestinian territorial contiguity and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

While international pressure has staved off the community’s destruction until now, the Supreme Court ultimately authorized its demolition and evacuation in 2018 after the state claimed it had developed a “relocation plan” for its residents.

Indeed, in recent months, the government has been advancing a plan to forcibly displace Palestinian Bedouin communities from the E1 area, including Khan al-Ahmar, and transfer them to a site near Abu Dis, directly adjacent to a massive landfill. In March 2026, the Civil Administration’s Supreme Planning Council published the project’s outline plan for public review.

These developments form part of a rapid acceleration of measures being carried out in tandem in and around Khan al-Ahmar and the wider E1 area, placing Palestinian communities at heightened risk of forcible displacement while clearing the way for the effective annexation of this strategic corridor.

Pushing Forward with the E1 Settlement
Among these measures, the government is moving ahead full force with the E1 settlement project, which would establish a massive new settlement comprised of 3,401 housing units between East Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim. If constructed, this settlement will effectively bisect the West Bank, sever it from East Jerusalem, and displace thousands of Palestinians, rendering a two-state framework with two capitals in Jerusalem nonviable.

Following approval of the two E1 plans in August 2025, the government rapidly proceeded to issue tenders for all planned housing units that December. The tender is currently scheduled to open for bids on June 1, 2026 and close on July 6, 2026, despite the fact that petitions against the settlement project remain pending before the District Court. These include a petition filed jointly by Ir Amim, together with partner organizations Bimkom and Peace Now. A hearing on the petitions is scheduled for June 15, 2026.

As part of laying the groundwork for settlement construction in E1, the government is in parallel continuing to advance construction of the bypass road for Palestinians, known as the “Fabric of Life” road. Coined the “Sovereignty Road” by Naftali Bennett during his stint as Defense Minister in 2020, the planned road will reroute Palestinian traffic out of the E1/Maaleh Adumim corridor and allow Israel to seal off a vast area in the heart of the West Bank to Palestinians. Once the road is constructed, Israel intends to move the checkpoint from its current location near Az Za’yim to a point east of the Kfar Adumim settlement, approximately 14 kilometers east of the Green Line. Just two weeks ago, the Civil Administration demolished dozens of Palestinian shops and businesses along the eastern entrance to Al-Eizariya as a preliminary step ahead of the road’s construction.

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