In Judea and Samaria, Hilltop Settlers Redraw the Map, Encircling Palestinian Villages

Something big is happening in the hills of Judea and Samaria. Two villages in central Binyamin, once hubs of Palestinian land expansion, are now surrounded by Jewish outposts, thanks to two years of determined work by hilltop settlers. The head of one village described his community as trapped, and it’s not hard to see why. This shift is flipping the balance of power, and it’s worth looking into how it happened and what it means.

A Game Changer in Binyamin

Sayel Kanaan, who runs the village council in Burqa, sounded weary in a recent Arab TV interview. “We’ve gone from 22,000 dunams to just 2,000,” he said. “There’s no room to grow, and people are leaving because of the Jewish outposts boxing us in.” His words sum up a major change in Judea and Samaria, where settlers are turning the tables on a Palestinian plan to squeeze Jewish communities.

For years, the Palestinian Authority followed a strategy laid out by former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to encircle Jewish settlements, cut them off from each other, and make them isolated pockets in Arab controlled areas. They built roads, planted orchards with help from foreign activists, put up homes across the hills, and farmed right up to settlement fences. With little pushback from Jewish residents, who often didn’t even know about the plan, this takeover moved fast, tightening the noose around communities in the region. Most settlements focused on guarding their fences and nothing more, letting Arab expansion happen in plain sight, sometimes just ten meters away, without a response.

When the scale of the threat finally came to light, Jewish communities split. Most stayed quiet, but a few took the alarming reports seriously and started fighting back, either by backing outposts outside their fences or setting up land committees to challenge illegal Arab construction. Even then, their efforts were like trying to hold back a flood with a bucket. The Palestinian Authority barely noticed, seeing Jewish resistance as a small bother.

The Hilltop Turnaround

Things started to shift two years ago, and it’s largely because of the hilltop settlers. Outposts beyond settlement fences, along with new ones popping up, changed the game. The Palestinian Authority, used to facing no real opposition, is now scrambling, holding urgent meetings to keep its villages from becoming cut off in Jewish controlled areas. Where they once dreamed of a Palestinian state taking shape, now there’s talk of despair and a “third Nakba.”

This change is most visible in two Binyamin villages: Burqa and Deir Dibwan. These places, once leading the charge in land grabs, are now hemmed in, their influence shrinking as Jewish outposts take back the land.

Burqa: A Village Boxed In

Burqa, a small village near Route 60, used to control huge swaths of land, far beyond its homes, stretching from the Kochav Yaakov gas station in the south to Givat Assaf in the north, Route 60 in the east, including the Ramat Magron ridge where I live, and up to Psagot’s edges in the west. Its shepherds grazed flocks right up to settlement fences, claiming nearly 20,000 dunams. The village didn’t stop there; it farmed fields, built stone walled plots, and put up “agricultural structures” that soon had people living in them, locking in its hold.

I’ve got videos on my phone from before Ramat Magron, which just marked four years since we settled there. One shows Burqa’s shepherds casually making coffee on the road to Magron, 150 meters from the settlement’s fence. But Ramat Magron’s arrival changed everything, pushing Burqa’s control off the ridge from the “Bathtub” area to Kochav Yaakov in just months. Every year since, the outpost has added hundreds of dunams to Jewish control.

Nearby, the Oz Zion and Tzur Harel outposts built a wide barrier between Burqa and the settlements of Givat Assaf and Psagot, stopping the Palestinian Authority’s plan to connect the village to Al Bira, which is already close to the Beit El Psagot “Garbage Axis.”

Kanaan’s description wasn’t far off: Jewish shepherds now graze just a few hundred meters from Burqa’s homes, while villagers argue over the little land left or sell their flocks. “Lots of herders sold their livestock because there’s no pasture or they’re scared of settler attacks outside the village,” he said. Farming has taken a hit too, with only 1,000 of 10,000 dunams still worked, and Kanaan said the Palestinian Authority isn’t doing enough to help.

Deir Dibwan: A Town Losing Ground

Just north of Burqa, Deir Dibwan is a different story. It’s a big, well connected town, home to many U.S. citizens and prominent figures like Ramallah Governor Laila Ghannam. Their global ties haven’t softened their drive; if anything, they’ve used them to fuel massive land grabs, even getting some Israeli institutions to back their efforts, which is tough to swallow.

Deir Dibwan’s reach was huge, covering land from Ofra in the north to Mikhmas and Magron, with tents, light buildings, factories, and homes nearly touching Route 60 and the Alon Road. Two years ago, the Shvut Yonatan outpost was set up to block the town’s chokehold on the Alon Road, clearing two Arab takeover outposts after a long fight over grazing land.

The town’s response was fierce, with a “resistance tent” sending out over 100 rioters nightly, hurling Molotov cocktails, 14 bombs, and 20 shooting attacks, plus assaults on shepherds, all in under a year. But the settlers stood their ground, and the attacks petered out. Now, Shvut Yonatan’s shepherds graze ten meters from Deir Dibwan’s homes, and the tent sits empty, a reminder of the struggle. The town’s push toward Mikhmas has been cut off, with Arab outposts abandoned.

The Hanina Farm outpost, started a year ago east of Shvut Yonatan, hit Deir Dibwan’s southern and eastern expansion hard, forcing remaining Arab takeover outposts near the Alon Road to pack up and move to the town’s center. On the other side, near Ofra and Tripi quarries, the Or Meir outpost overcame a failed attempt two years earlier, when Arab attacks injured settlers. A new group settled the hill, using flocks and farming to secure thousands of dunams. The Arab outpost that led the earlier attacks fled to Deir Dibwan’s edge.

A year ago, the Or Ahuvia outpost, home to two families and a group of young women, joined the ridge between Ofra and Deir Dibwan. Recently, another outpost completed the Jewish defensive line north of the town.

These efforts pushed two more Arab takeover outposts back to Deir Dibwan, putting the town close to being cut off from the Palestinian villages of Rimmon, Taybeh, and Deir Jarir, which tie it to a major Arab corridor from Shilo to Jericho. If the settlers finish the job, Deir Dibwan will become an enclave in Jewish territory, linking Route 60 and the Alon Road in a Jewish corridor.

Despair Takes Hold

Deir Dibwan’s residents are feeling the pressure. This week, many with U.S. citizenship signed a petition to President Trump and Ambassador Huckabee, begging for protection from “constant settler attacks” and land loss. “Most American citizens here are women and children, living peacefully, raising families, and going to school,” the petition said, sidestepping the town’s history of violent attacks and casting themselves as victims. Trump hasn’t responded.

A Wider Change

Not every part of Judea and Samaria looks like Burqa or Deir Dibwan; some areas are still sparsely settled and worrisome. But the direction is clear: where Jews take action, the balance shifts. The land returning to Jewish hands is growing fast, and it feels like a redemption happening right now. The task ahead is to keep pushing, get more people involved, and, God willing, see our land fully restored soon.

Arutz Sheva contributed to this article.