By Staff, Agencies

The Palestinian village of Atouf, on the western slopes of the Jordan Valley, faced imminent destruction as eviction notices appeared overnight on homes, greenhouses, and wells, giving farmers seven days from 4 December to vacate for an "Israeli" military road and barrier cutting through their land.

Lawyers for the Atouf village council have lodged an appeal, but long and bitter experience has taught Palestinians here to have low expectations of “Israeli” courts.

“The ‘Israeli’ military can do anything they like. They don’t care about the law or anything else,” said Ismael Bsharat, a local farmer.

Similar eviction notices hit a 14-mile [22km] strip of Atouf farmland, marking the first section of a new barrier set to reshape the West Bank.

This week, "Israel’s" war ministry confirmed this is the first section of the 5.5bn-shekel [£1.3bn] “Crimson Thread” barrier, eventually stretching 300 miles from the Golan Heights to the Red Sea, cutting through numerous Palestinian communities.

The "Israeli" occupation claims the barrier is for security, but human rights activists note only one recent lethal incident near Atouf, arguing the true aim is land seizure and undermining Palestine’s viability.

“It is happening all through the Jordan Valley, especially in the north. 'Israel' is pushing forward, and accelerating the ethnic cleansing of this area,” said Dror Etkes, founder of "Kerem Navot", which monitors "Israeli" land policy in occupied Palestine.

"Israel" consistently rejected ethnic cleansing claims and denied that settler colonization in occupied territory was illegal.

Etkes said nearly 85% of the 1,000 dunams targeted by eviction orders around Atouf were privately owned, among the West Bank’s most fertile lands, historically one of Palestine’s breadbaskets.

Meanwhile, most affected families had farmed the land for generations and bought parcels at high prices, but holding title deeds did little to change the looming land grab.

Palestinian lawyers’ eviction appeal went unanswered, while settlers are expected to take over the land with a new settlement planned nearby.

Elsewhere, settlements were being planned across the West Bank at record pace, with over 5,600 housing units tendered this year, 50% above the 2018 peak.

These are only the officially sanctioned settlements; new settler outposts, often just huts or portable buildings, were rapidly appearing along the valley, unofficial but effectively supported by the “Israeli” forces, police, and far-right coalition members.

At the same time, at least one Atouf farmer began moving livestock for eviction, while Bsharat stayed, knowing his 12 dunams would lose water access once the military road and barrier were built.

“What can I do? I can’t farm without water,” said Abdullah Bsharat, Atouf’s village council leader, who predicted up to 40 families would lose access to their land and water. “All these families have title deeds… The whole aim is to take it over for settlers to use it.”

According to him, "Israeli" officers said the road and barrier would be 50 meters wide, with a 200-metre exclusion zone on either side, which, if true, would greatly harm Atouf’s economy.

The “Crimson Thread” barrier will enclose Khirbet Yarza’s sheep-herding community, restricting access to their land, as "Israel" frames it as the first phase of a Jordan Valley security project.

Meanwhile, Maj Gen Eran Ofir said the security barrier whose construction we began today will extend over approximately 500km along the entire eastern border of "Israel", adding it would be “a smart border” with sensors, radars, and cameras; work had started on two sections, including a military road near "Bardala" and "Kardala".

According to the Times of "Israel", the Atouf project was sparked by a single security incident, the killing of an "Israeli" in August 2024. However, Etkes argued that the real motive was not security but the land’s value, stating, “They are using this incident as a pretext to take over tens of thousands of dunams and push Palestinian communities further out of the Jordan valley.”