Central Israel in danger: A look at the terror threat from the Palestinian-run West Bank

The terrorist threat in central Israel is much greater than most people realize.

According to its website, Regavim, a right-wing NGO, is “dedicated to the protection of Israel’s national lands and resources.” Last week, Regavim hosted a fact-finding media tour of the IDF’s seam line firing zone that separates Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank) from sovereign Israel.

Naomi Kahn, director of Regavim’s International Division, said the security buffer zone includes close to 19,000 illegal Palestinian structures.

“Regavim has documented every single one, which is only a small portion of the illegal construction we have identified throughout Judea and Samaria,” she said, referring to the areas under Israeli jurisdiction.

Standing at a lookout from Rosh Ha’ayin, a city in central Israel, facing Samaria, the scene was alarming. As is the case all along the seam line, extending from Mount Gilboa in the North to Beersheba in the South, one could see the illegal Palestinian encroachment in the buffer zone.

Notably, this illegal Palestinian construction and agriculture is in Area C, which, as stipulated in the Oslo Accords, is under Israeli control.

Residents of Rosh Ha’ayin and nearby communities, including the picturesque village of Nirit, located within a kilometer of the border with Samaria, have been suffering daily from the impact of the illegal Palestinian construction. Although the main issue is fear of terrorism, they have also experienced health problems due to the environmental hazards caused by uncontrolled and unregulated waste burning, toxic refuse, and other substandard industrial activity. 

One resident told the journalists that his wife suffered repeated miscarriages, and her doctor discovered they were due to the poisonous environment. Another resident reported seeing Palestinian Authority vehicles driving through the closed military zone, gradually approaching the Israeli side and inspecting the area.

The imminent threat of Palestinian terror attacks?

ITZIK TURGEMAN, who lives in Nirit, discussed the imminent threat. A retired electronic engineer, he had a long career in the IDF, after which he headed the Rashi Foundation, a leading private philanthropic entity. Now, besides working as a glass artist, he volunteers with the emergency standby squad, who are first responders to local terrorism.

“Twenty years ago, when we walked around this area, we didn’t see any of these [Palestinian] buildings that are here now, so close to the security barrier. Month after month, there’s new construction, and we hear the noise,” he said, explaining that Nirit is surrounded by two Palestinian villages and the Israeli town of Oranit.

“After Oct. 7, we had to strengthen our defense because when the terrorists see success, they try to repeat it. It’s a real danger. More and more illegal buildings are now close to the barrier – not just in this area but throughout the country.”

He emphasized that it’s a planned extension rather than a natural one. “My message is mainly to the army. The [Palestinian] construction should not have occurred 500 meters from the barrier. In certain areas, buildings are situated directly on the barrier. It’s a security problem that the government of Israel and the IDF must deal with,” he asserted.

Nirit, located within sovereign Israel, is far from being a right-wing “settler” community. Asked whether in the last election fellow residents of Nirit voted for Religious Zionism Party leader Bezalel Smotrich, one of the founders of Regavim, Turgeman said he didn’t know of anyone who did, but that 80% of them voted for parties that are in the opposition. As for Rosh Ha’ayin, one of its most prominent residents is National Unity Party chairman and former defense minister Benny Gantz.

“The strategy was always to live and let live, hoping that one day they [the Palestinians] would let us live in peace,” Turgeman said. “But you see that it’s a dream; it’s not reality.”

He believes that the continuation of illegal building and illegal agricultural activity are primarily due to foreign pressure. “They [foreign leaders] always blame Israel and don’t even try to understand” the situation. However, it’s not unusual to fear terrorist attacks after Oct. 7.

“What we observed in south Lebanon were Arab villages situated near the border,” he continued, noting the similar situation along the seam line. “We [in Israel] try to find a way to make life better for everyone,” including the Palestinians, “and they think about how to destroy us. We can no longer ignore it.”

Kahn said that the Palestinian construction is illegal not only under Israeli military rule but also according to international law. “The Oslo Accords specifically stipulate 20 buffer zones, or security zones, to separate these areas,” she explained. “Anything built in Israeli jurisdiction requires Israeli permits.

“Despite the abundance of empty space available for construction, the Palestinians have chosen to build near the seam line.

“Less than 1% of the territory of Judea and Samaria has a Jewish presence,” Kahn noted.

“Looking down, you can see the water tanker,” she continued. “That’s the key to this whole issue. Without water, you cannot exist. Again, this is all on the Israeli side.

“The intentions of the Palestinian Authority are very clear,” she stated, pointing to a Regavim map of what she terms the ‘Israel Envelope,’ which shows a heavy Palestinian presence along the seam line buffer zones from the North to the South.

“The route available to them now is the route that goes from Jordan into Judea and Samaria. This entire region is flooded with weapons and terrorists who are coming in, as we speak, from Jordan and from the areas under Palestinian Authority control. The Green Line is fiction; it doesn’t exist. There is terror inside the State of Israel.”

With special permission and escorts from the IDF, the journalists traveled through the firing zone.

“Just look out the window on your right,” Kahn said. “Most of the new mosques being built right here have gold domes. These domes are not just decoration.... They are all funded by Qatari money and built by the Muslim Brotherhood.

“This is not Gaza. The domes are not just a religious statement. It’s a political statement, and it’s physical, tangible, and observable proof of the extremism that is taking root inside Israeli Arab communities, and the Green Line is not functional.... The Green Line is being physically erased, and it’s not by Israel, as you might read in the international press. It’s being erased by all the illegal [Palestinian] construction up to and beyond the Green Line and in areas under Israeli jurisdiction by clearly hostile, extremist, antisemitic, and anti-Israel elements. 

“And it’s not coincidental because, as I said earlier, there are other options for construction for the [Palestinian] civilian population. The Palestinian Authority was created so that there would be less and less contact between the two populations and not more and more as there is now.”

Furthermore, she added, “In this part of Area C, the Palestinians walk around like the owners. All sorts of illegal activity are taking place in front of our eyes,” she said, pointing to the beautiful homes and paved roads. 

“The Arabs there didn’t ask permission to go inside, like we did. They simply are taking over the land, building on it, planting on it, and establishing ownership through land seizure and expropriation.

“Israel has every right and responsibility to maintain law and order in the area, to enforce the law, and to protect its national interests – the land resources themselves and the security of the Israeli communities that lie behind the firing zone.”

Barak Werker, CEO of the Green Now organization, elaborated on the complaints about the lethal environment, noting that it harms the Palestinians as well. When it comes to environmental issues, such as polluting the water source that both sides drink from and dumping garbage into the valley, “there are no boundaries.” 

The only solution, he said, is for the Israelis and the Palestinians to work together, but it won’t happen in one day. The situation is that of a first-world country vs a third-world entity, where the leadership has no interest in improving the lives of civilians.

“There was nothing, just a generator and a tent,” he said. “The reason we came here is to protect the Israeli homeland. From here, you can see Rosh Ha’ayin, Leshem, Elkana, and the Azrieli towers in Tel Aviv. There’s an understanding with the IDF and the government that we need to protect these lands, but nothing has been done. 

“There is widespread illegal construction all over, as is the case in south Hebron. We need to bring an Israeli presence to protect the land.

“Wherever the Jewish plow plows its last furrow, that is where the border will run,” he said, quoting a famous line by early Zionist hero Joseph Trumpeldor. “It’s been understood since before the state’s founding, not just in recent years, that civilian life on the land sets the border. When no one inhabited the area, illegal construction took place.”

Melet, who studied law after serving four years in the military and worked with Regavim, sees it as his “national duty” to protect the land. “It’s hard work, from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., and guarding at night, but we see progress. It’s meaningful work for the state. We have youth helping us, and they’re very motivated. It’s Zionism, as well as educational work, helping these youth who have left the school system.”

Kahn added, “It’s all legal, but that won’t stop Peace Now, B’Tselem, and all our good friends from the Left from saying this is illegal expansion on Palestinian land. There are no Palestinians here on this land, and there never have been. This is not the site of a village or any other type of population center that has ever been used, and the state is fully within its rights to use it as it sees fit and to encourage use of the land so that it is not overtaken by illegal construction.”

Asked whether he has been harassed by Palestinians in the area, Melet said that only recently, when he was called again to serve in the IDF reserves in Lebanon, they stole seven cows that were worth tens of thousands of shekels in damage, and there is no way to recoup that money.

“Our existence here doesn’t necessitate conflict or confrontation, as the Arabs know very well where the border is,” he said. “The problem is that when no one is here, they take over; but once people live here, that doesn’t happen. It’s land protection via an Israeli presence.”

The Magazine asked Kahn if defeating Iran, the “head of the snake,” would help solve the problem on the seam line.

“I think it would, in some ways,” she replied. “First, the State of Israel has been living under the threat of attack from Lebanon for years. If that threat is gone, it means Israel will be much more at liberty to do what needs to be done to protect itself both in the North and the South. The situation in Judea and Samaria is not really any different. Once we can physically control what goes in and out of all these places, the threats that we’re facing will be reduced – if we act.”

MORIYA MICHAELI, who lives in the community of Ofra in Samaria, is among a group of women who began observing the border along the seam line after Oct. 7 – like the young women who observed the border with the Gaza Strip and warned of terrorist activity ahead of Oct. 7 but were ignored. 

Michaeli and the other spotters began their task after the war started. “It’s the women doing it because the men were called up to fight,” she explained.

“We understand that the potential for an Oct. 7 scenario in all these Jewish communities along the Green Line has become a very serious and possible reality.

“The conceptzia [Israel’s underlying concept of government policy] remains unchanged; they [policy-makers] prefer to focus on the current calm, without considering the possibility of a change at any time. So rather than taking the initiative to prevent, they prefer to slide along as if nothing has changed,” she lamented.

“We women observers have a job. We must protect our children so that what happened to children in Kfar Aza won’t happen here.”  