Atouf, West Bank - In the Jordan Valley village of Atouf, Palestinian farmers are hauling ladders, fences, and other agricultural equipment into their pick-up truck - preparing to leave their lands.
“I invested NIS 150,000 [$48,800] in planting these peas, and I still didn’t have the time to pick them all before they dried up,” Yahya Bisharat said on 28 March 2026, when The New Arab visited Atouf, located just south of Tubas in the occupied West Bank.
In what’s known as Palestine’s ‘bread basket’ , the Jordan Valley is rich in water resources and fertile soil. Nestled between jagged mountain peaks and rolling green hills, farmers in the Jordan Valley grow a range of vegetables and fruits, like tomatoes, grapes, bananas, and olives.
In the village of Tammun, for example, 90% of residents make a living off the area’s agriculture, according to the municipality. But in the fields of Atouf, there’s nothing but crushed, yellow leaves lying limp in red dirt - the result of soldier and settler destruction of the farmers’ water infrastructure .
On 4 March 2026, the Israeli military began excavating the lands of Atouf in order to construct a 22-kilometre-long and 50-meter-wide fence and accompanying road that will slice through the village - running from the Tayyasir military checkpoint in Tubas at the edge of the Jordan Valley to the Nablus village of Ein Shibli.
To erect its new barrier, the Israeli army is destroying everything in the route’s path, including water pipelines belonging to Atouf farmers.
“Settlers were present when the army was destroying [the pipelines],” Bisharat said. “Some settlers broke the water pipes too and would check the ground after to make sure it was dry, that all the water pipes were indeed broken.”
Now, without running water, Atouf’s crops can’t survive, and farmers are leaving. Rights groups say about 30 families, consisting of 180 individuals, in Atouf will be impacted by the barrier and likely displaced because of its construction.
According to Dror Etkes, founder of Kerem Navot, an Israeli organisation monitoring land policy in the West Bank, at the end of November last year, the military issued nine seizure orders confiscating 1,160 dunams (287 acres) of Atouf land for unspecified “security” purposes.
“You have to distinguish between the land seized for the construction of this barrier and the land which will become inaccessible as a result of the construction of the barrier,” Etkes told TNA .
Construction of the military fence has taken a portion of Atouf’s property, but once built, it will prevent farmers from reaching their land east of the barrier, which Etkes estimates to be approximately 40,000 dunams (9,900 acres).
While openings in the barrier may be created so farmers can reach the rest of their land, Etkes points to the Israeli wall , established in 2002, that bisects the West Bank, as an example of how even possible passage through the barrier could remain an obstacle.
While gates have been installed along the current wall, the army sets the schedule for opening and closing times, determines who can be allowed to cross, and is notorious for shuttering the entrances for long periods .
“Past experience showed that Israel is taking advantage of these types of elements in order to reduce the number of people who are crossing the barrier, and eventually it becomes harder and harder, and more and more people actually lose their land,” Etkes said
A farmer and shepherd in Atouf, who wished not to be named, said he and his sons are sorting through their belongings in anticipation that they will have to leave soon.
While the damaged water supply threatens the family’s livelihood, the bigger problem, the unnamed shepherd explained, is the community’s growing isolation. On one side of the village, the future barrier will cut Atouf off from the rest of the Jordan Valley, while on the other side of Atouf, intensifying settler attacks stop Atouf farmers from using the main road.
Combined, the army and settler activity prevents residents from bringing supplies - like water tanks - into their fields.
“The problem is not the price of water,” the shepherd said. “The problem is not having any way to bring water in at all.”
The new barrier is part of a larger 500-kilometre wall the military plans to erect from the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights to the Red Sea. Entitled the “Crimson Thread”, the Israeli Defence Ministry says the new wall is needed to prevent weapons smuggling and protect settlers.
An additional 20 meters on each side of the barrier will be cordoned off, eating up even more Palestinian land.
In January, the Colonization and Wall Resistance Committee, a Palestinian Authority (PA) agency, petitioned Israel’s High Court on behalf of nearly 200 individuals against the wall’s construction.
The court initially issued an interim injunction halting the project in February, but at the onset of the US-Israeli war on Iran, the court responded to the petition on 3 March, saying this part of the wall in Tubas can be constructed for undisclosed “urgent security needs.”
Little is known about how the wider wall will affect the rest of the West Bank, but in the Jordan Valley, the impact is clear as the army obstructs roads with mounds of soil even before the concrete is poured.
As families prepare to leave over the damage caused by the construction, others have already left.
Kheirallah Bani Odeh’s house was just 200 metres from the route of the barrier, but that’s not what prompted him to move. “Settlers would come and harass us,” Bani Odeh told TNA .
These settlers come from the newly established Mount Tammun settlement, just above where Bani Odeh used to live. This settlement was one of 19 that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced building last year, including two that were dismantled when Israel withdrew its settlements from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
The military informed Bani Odeh he would not be evacuated because of the barrier, but the wall’s path would block his way out of Tammum, and he would have to take a one-hour detour just to leave his home.
“The military didn’t say anything about me needing to leave,” Binawdah said. “But the settlers responded [to me], ‘I’m in charge of this area, and you need to leave.’”
When masked Israeli settlers rampaged through the Jordan Valley village of Khirbet Humsa and sexually assaulted a Palestinian man , that was the final trigger, and the family left.
Bani Odeh says that for decades, Israel has been pushing Palestinians to leave their land, but nothing worked - until now.
“When Israeli soldiers shot livestock, we didn't leave our houses. When they used to detain people, we didn't leave our houses, then they started confiscating whole flocks…but we didn't leave the land,” Bani Odeh said.
“But now it's gotten to a point that we have no other choice. We survived all of these things, but now it’s just impossible to stay.” Jessica Buxbaum is a Jerusalem-based journalist covering Palestine and Israel. Her work has been featured in Middle East Eye, The National, and Gulf News. Follow her on Twitter: @jess_buxbaum Edited by Charlie Hoyle