Israeli settlers recently established an illegal outpost near the Bedouin community of Ma'azi Jaba', northeast of occupied Jerusalem , intensifying fears among residents that a months-long campaign of attacks and land seizures aims at displacing Palestinian Bedouin communities and expanding Israeli settlement control over the area.
Speaking with The New Arab , Palestinian residents, activists and officials said that the newly established Israeli outpost reflects a broader strategy of expanding so-called "pastoral settlements" across the eastern outskirts of occupied Jerusalem, where Bedouin communities face mounting pressure through Israeli violence, restrictions on grazing land and the gradual theft of territory.
The Ma'azi Jaba' community lies in Area C of the occupied West Bank , which, under the 1995 Oslo II Accord signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), remains under full Israeli civil and military control.
The agreement divided the occupied West Bank into three administrative zones: Area A, under Palestinian civil and security control; Area B, under Palestinian civil administration with Israeli security control; and Area C, which remains under full Israeli control and accounts for about 60 per cent of the West Bank.
Most Israeli settlements and settlement outposts are located in Area C, where Palestinians face strict restrictions on construction, land use and development.
Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements built in territories occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem, to be illegal under international law and an obstacle to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
According to the Jerusalem Governorate, the new illegal Israeli outpost brings the number of settlement outposts across the governorate to around 23.
Most are concentrated in Jerusalem's eastern and northern belts, where approximately 37 Bedouin communities, home to more than 7,000 Palestinians, remain under growing pressure from settlement expansion.
For residents of Ma'azi Jaba', the latest outpost is the continuation of months of attacks that have dramatically altered daily life.
"Our lives changed the moment they arrived," Najeh Ara'ara, a resident whose family has lived in the area since the 1970s, told TNA .
Ara'ara said settlers first established an outpost around one kilometre from the community in February, after which attacks escalated rapidly.
"From the day they came, they started attacking and setting fires. There isn't a single home here that they didn't try to burn. They terrified our children and our women. We live in fear every single day," he added.
The community consists of around 38 families, with approximately 150 residents.
Ara'ara said shepherds once had access to vast grazing lands, but the expanding settler presence has sharply restricted their movements.
"We're no longer allowed to take our sheep far from the community. If we do, settlers come after us, try to steal our livestock or attack us. We've had to change the way we graze our animals completely," he continued.
As attacks have become more frequent, residents have begun organising nightly watches to protect their homes.
"We take turns staying awake because we're afraid they'll return to burn our houses. Their goal is to drive us away, but we will stay on our land no matter what," he explained. Increasing attacks Ahmed Ka'abneh, another resident, said life has steadily deteriorated since settlers established an outpost south of the community.
"My brother's home was burned last September. Everything inside was destroyed," he told TNA . "Our lives have become nothing but hardship, day and night. Many of the men no longer work because they're busy guarding the homes and livestock."
According to Ka'abneh, women and children are moved away whenever settlers approach because residents fear further violence.
"We can't confront armed settlers. People have been injured directly during these attacks. They have happened more than five times. Every time, dozens of settlers come under the protection of Israeli forces, and some fire live ammunition," he said.
He added that settlers have burned five homes and livestock enclosures, leaving families in a permanent state of fear.
The so-called "pastoral settlement" has become one of the fastest-growing methods of settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, according to the Jerusalem Governorate.
Rather than immediately constructing large residential settlements, settlers first establish small agricultural or herding outposts on strategic hilltops and grazing land.
Over time, these outposts become connected to nearby settlement infrastructure and gradually expand, restricting Palestinian access to land while limiting the natural growth of neighbouring Bedouin communities.
According to the governorate, communities stretching from Mikhmas in the north to Wadi al-Nar in the south face near-daily violations, including land seizures, restrictions on grazing, attacks on homes and livestock, and obstacles to accessing basic services.
It said it documented approximately 269 attacks by Israeli forces and settlers across the Jerusalem Governorate during the first half of 2026, including 52 incidents resulting in physical injuries and the killing of three Palestinians. A wider conquest strategy Ayed Ghafri, an activist monitoring settlement expansion, believes the new outpost forms part of a broader effort to reshape the geography of the area and consolidate Israeli settlement blocs.
He told TNA that repeated attacks on Ma'azi Jaba' are intended to seize hundreds of dunams of land, expand the Adam settlement and ultimately create territorial continuity with the Binyamin settlement bloc.
"The pressure is intended to empty the area of its Bedouin communities," Ghafri said.
He noted that the community is home to around 200 Palestinians, including approximately 70 children, many of whom already live without basic infrastructure or public services.
"What we're seeing is the model of pastoral settlement," he added. "Small outposts gradually become centres of control over vast grazing areas before they are effectively absorbed into neighbouring settlements."
Previous Israeli planning decisions have reinforced those concerns.
In February 2024, Israeli authorities published a zoning plan to expand the Geva Binyamin settlement onto approximately 150 dunams of land belonging to the nearby Palestinian town of Jaba', converting agricultural land into residential neighbourhoods.
According to the Land Research Centre, the project aims to strengthen territorial links between the Geva Binyamin and Sha'ar Binyamin settlements. The Ma'azi Jaba' Bedouin community lies directly between the two, making it a significant geographical obstacle to the creation of uninterrupted settlement contiguity.
The latest developments come amid a broader increase in settlement-related violence across the occupied West Bank .
Mu'ayyad Sha'ban, head of the Palestinian Commission Against the Wall and Settlements, said Israeli forces and settlers carried out 11,074 attacks across the occupied West Bank during the first half of 2026.
These included land confiscations, settlement expansion, forced displacement, bulldozing of agricultural land, uprooting of trees, and road closures.
Sha'ban called on the international community to move beyond statements of condemnation and take practical measures to halt settlement expansion and provide protection for Palestinian communities facing increasing violence.