The real reason Israel is launching yet another military operation in the northern West Bank

The Israeli army announced that it was launching a military operation in the northern West Bank, concentrating on a handful of villages and towns outside of the city of Tubas. Israeli forces moved into the Tubas governorate on Wednesday, deploying units from the Menashe, Shomron, and Commando Brigades.

The Israeli army said on X that it aims to “reinforce control over the area” as part of broader operations in the northern West Bank, claiming that the Tubas operation is intended to prevent the reformation of armed resistance groups in the governorate.

But local sources tell Mondoweiss this is just a pretext. The real reason for the wide-ranging mobilization of military forces is to lay the groundwork for confiscating large swathes of land for an upcoming settlement project.

Here’s what you need to know.

Towns and villages under siege

The operation, which began shortly after midnight, placed Tubas and the surrounding towns of Tammun, Aqaba, Tayasir, and Wadi al-Fara under siege. Hours earlier, Israeli forces stormed wide areas of the governorate, including the nearby villages of al-Badhan and Talluza, isolating Tubas with roadblocks, earth mounds, and checkpoints.

Soldiers entered with additional troops, bulldozers, and Apache helicopters, which opened fire toward residential areas, according to Tubas mayor Mahmoud Daraghmeh, who told Mondoweiss that this is the first time since the Second Intifada that helicopters have been used in Tubas.

Daraghmeh said the operation, set to continue for several days, began with coordinated incursions and house-to-house raids across the city and surrounding towns.

In Tammun, soldiers damaged infrastructure and cut electricity and water to several streets. According to local reports, Israeli forces converted multiple homes into military bases, expelled the families that resided within them, and ordered them not to return for several days. The army also detained more than 22 young men and conducted field interrogations with them. By about 8 p.m. local time, the Israeli army had detained over 73 people.

Ahmad Assad, governor of Tubas and the Northern Jordan Valley, told Mondoweiss that Israeli forces have imposed a full curfew, restricted the movement of ambulances and medical crews, and blocked access to patients needing urgent care.

This was corroborated by a statement from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) later in the day, reporting 10 injuries from “severe beatings.” Four of them were hospitalized, while the remaining six were treated in the field. 

The organization added that its crews have faced continuous obstruction from Israel forces in Tubas and Tammun since dawn, and that its teams transported 30 medical cases to the hospital, including 20 kidney dialysis patients and one deceased person.

Land confiscation at its core

A local source who spoke with Mondoweiss on the condition of anonymity said that the real objective of the operation isn’t to prevent the re-formation of resistance groups in the governorate; the real reason is land confiscation for the expansion of settlements.

“The army is using these claims to facilitate settlement expansion in Tubas and the Jordan Valley,” the source told Mondoweiss, asserting that the operation is designed to pressure residents to leave the area ahead of construction of a new road and military checkpoint that was announced earlier this week, ensuring minimal resistance once land seizures begin.

“They want to ensure that there will be no reaction from residents once the actual construction of the road begins, which will entail the confiscation of land on the ground,” the source said.

On November 22, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission reported that Israeli authorities had seized 1,042 dunams of Palestinian land in the northern Jordan Valley through nine “land seizure” orders for “military purposes.”

The orders targeted the towns of Tammun, Tayasir, and Talluza, as well as the city of Tubas, to carve out a horizontal road starting from Ein Shibli in the south and reaching Aqaba in the north.

Muayyad Shaban, head of the commission, said that these orders represent a “qualitative shift” in the occupation’s use of land seizure orders in Tubas and the northern Jordan Valley. Although the orders appear separate, Shaban told Mondoweiss, overlaying them on maps reveals that they form a single cohesive project: the construction of a wide road extending 22 kilometers from northern Tubas toward Tayasir and the Jordan Valley.

Shaban explained that this road crosses vast agricultural and residential areas, encircles the hamlet of Yarza from all directions, and aims to deprive residents of access to the grazing lands stretching east of the road, which is estimated at tens of thousands of dunams.

Israel labels it a “security road,” Shaban says, which is typically used for carving out military bypass roads that allow the army rapid control over valleys and hilltops while connecting with its bases in the Jordan Valley. 

He pointed out that the road’s scale indicates it is a strategic corridor rather than a temporary military road, as it outlines a new axis of movement linking the Jordan Valley to Israel proper. It also means a tightening of control over the agricultural lands between Tubas, Tammun, and Tayasir, he said, adding that it effectively prevents any Palestinian geographic continuity outside of Israeli control.

In other words, military land seizure orders are being used as a cover. “Experience shows that 90% of ‘military roads’ are later transformed to serve settlements or to function as separation corridors between Palestinian communities,” Shaban told Mondoweiss.

Daraghmeh said Israel has imposed a new territorial reality in Tubas and the Jordan Valley. Of Tubas’s 400 square kilometers, 70% is Area C — that is, under total Israeli military control as per the Oslo Accords. That area hosts seven settlements and nine military training sites. Only 30% of Tubas’s remaining lands are classified as Area A, under the control of the Palestinian Authority,  as well as Area B, which is under joint Israeli-PA control.

Shepherding outposts have rapidly expanded, with settlers fencing land under army protection. The new road project, Daraghmeh says, will confiscate remaining Palestinian land to carve out a road between Ein Shibli and Aqaba, severing the Jordan Valley’s continuity.

“There are now more than 27 shepherding outposts,” Daraghmeh said. “A settler can place a fence around any area he wants and immediately seize it, while being naturally protected by the Israeli army.”