RAMALLAH / Awad al-Rajoub / Anadolu

The Palestine Liberation Organization said on Saturday that the Israeli government is using the settlement road network as an "effective tool to reshape the geography of the occupied West Bank and entrench control over Palestinian lands," as part of a plan that includes more than 100 settlement blocs and 160 farms.

This was stated in a weekly report by the organization's National Office for the Defense of Land, a copy of which was obtained by Anadolu. It said that the Israeli government is considering allocating more than one billion shekels (about $333 million) for paving new settlement roads in the occupied West Bank.

The report did not specify the source of its information regarding the Israeli plan.

The report stated that the settlement roads connect settlements, outposts, and pasture farms to each other and to Israeli cities, while isolating Palestinian communities and turning them into separate enclaves.

It added that Israel is spending huge budgets to carve out hundreds of kilometers of bypass, security, and secondary roads designated for settlers.

It explained that these roads swallow up vast areas of occupied West Bank land and are designed to bypass densely populated Palestinian centers, providing safe and fast movement for settlers between settlements and Israeli cities.

The report noted that the Israeli government approved projects during 2024, 2025, and until mid-2026 to carve out hundreds of kilometers of settlement bypass roads.

Among the most prominent projects is Highway 60, which cuts through the occupied West Bank from north to south, along with a network of roads in the Ramallah and Jerusalem governorates.

The report considered that the period between 2024 and mid-2026 saw an 'unprecedented surge' in the construction of roads serving settlements, outposts, and pasture farms.

It said these roads represent the 'backbone of the silent annexation strategy' led by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich through the Civil Administration, a branch of the Israeli army.

According to data from the Palestinian Authority's Commission for Countering the Wall and Settlement, Israeli planning bodies discussed 524 structural plans for settlements, while about 60,000 dunams of Palestinian land have been seized since the start of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza on October 8, 2023.

The occupied West Bank has witnessed an escalation in attacks by the Israeli army and settlers since October 2023, which, according to official Palestinian data, has resulted in 1,181 Palestinians killed and about 13,000 wounded, in addition to the arrest of nearly 24,000 Palestinians as of July this year.