In Jordan Valley, miles of mysterious fences are penning in Palestinian shepherds

Mohammad, a resident of al-Hadidiya in the northern Jordan Valley, woke up one morning in November 2025 to find people building a fence on his land, just a few hundred meters from his home. “When I saw them building, I went up to them and asked, ‘What are you doing here?’ They answered me in Arabic, ‘Get out of here. It’ll be better for you.’ I could see they were looking for trouble, so I left,” Mohammad, who asked that his real name not be disclosed out of concern for his safety, told The Times of Israel.

The fence near al-Hadidiya stretches for at least several kilometers. While it does not completely surround the homes in the small community, it’s extensive enough to largely cut the 60 residents off from the lands where they normally graze their animals. The barrier is one of several fences built in recent years on or adjacent to private Palestinian property by unidentified actors, observers say. According to Jordan Valley Activists, a group that assists Palestinian residents of the area, some of the fences were built around five years ago, but most were erected from summer 2025 to summer 2026.

Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Newsletter email address Get it By signing up, you agree to the terms In general, the fences comprise posts that are 1.5-2 meters (5-6.5 feet) tall with lines of barbed wire strung between them, similar to those used for penning livestock. Unidentified individuals wearing civilian clothes with Hebrew writing on them erect a fence in Farsiya, in the northern Jordan Valley, June 2025. (Jordan Valley Activists) Some of the fences have been built near Palestinian and Bedouin communities, often alongside roads, blocking residents’ access to grazing lands.

Others, as in Mohammad’s case, have been erected on privately owned Palestinian land. Though Palestinians and activists suspect that settlers, eager to maximize their hold on West Bank land, are behind the fences, the Israel Defense Forces told the Times of Israel that the military had put up the barriers to demarcate and enclose military firing zones in the Jordan Valley, where soldiers conduct live-fire exercises. Advertisement “The matter is under review.

In light of several safety incidents, including one in which several children were injured while playing with unexploded ordnance in the vicinity of firing zones, the IDF is stepping up efforts to mark and fence off firing zones in order to prevent unauthorized individuals from entering,” the military said. A map showing fences erected in the Jordan Valley and IDF firing zones. (Kerem Navot) However, according to Dror Etkes of the Kerem Navot organization, who has mapped the fences, the barriers overlap only partially with designated military firing zones, while some are not located anywhere near such areas.

In addition, the state has acknowledged in two separate High Court cases that fences were erected in an unauthorized manner and had to be dismantled. Photos and videos show the fences being built by people wearing civilian clothes rather than military uniforms, some of them wearing shirts with Hebrew writing. In several cases, minors were also documented taking part in the construction. Asked about some of the discrepancies, the IDF responded only that “the matter is under review.”

Builders in civilian clothes, some minors The Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, which is responsible for land use planning, building and enforcement in the West Bank’s Israeli-administered Area C, also told The Times of Israel that construction of the fences was an IDF operation. Advertisement Most of the Jordan Valley falls under Area C, including some 20,000 Palestinians, who are about a quarter of the total population of the area, according to 2018 figures from Peace Now.

Many of them are Bedouin living in dozens of small pastoral hamlets and community clusters spread across the landscape. As in other parts of the West Bank, such communities, often made up of clans that fled to the area during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, have been in the Jordan Valley for decades, where they maintain semi-sedentary lifestyles largely based on raising sheep and other livestock. As the fences have gone up, they have severely affected herders’ livelihoods by restricting their ability to move livestock onto grazing lands they have long relied on.

A fence near Ein al-Hilweh in the northern Jordan Valley, May 2025. (Jordan Valley Activists) In the Jordan Valley and beyond, rural Bedouin hamlets have come under intense harassment, property destruction and physical attacks by Israeli settlers seeking to expand their hold on West Bank lands by establishing agricultural outposts and laying claim to wide swaths of grazing grounds. Between January and May of this year, 107 settler attacks resulting in casualties or property damage were recorded in the Jordan Valley, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Mohammad said settlers from the area had destroyed a field of wheat he planted over the past year to feed his sheep. “The settlers do whatever they want — they destroy, they steal,” he charged. Settlers, who allegedly operate at times with varying levels of IDF support, have claimed, often without evidence, that their actions are necessitated by security threats posed by Palestinians. Advertisement Palestinian residents and activists who spoke to The Times of Israel said the fences were part of the broader pattern of settler violence and expansion, accusing settlers from nearby outposts of constructing the barriers.

Residents of the Palestinian Bedouin hamlet of Mu’arrajat in the southern Jordan Valley in the West Bank pack up their belongings following intense harassment and intimidation from extremist settlers, July 4, 2025 (Courtesy Alia Mleihat) “The main factor that ultimately prevents access is violence,” Etkes argued. “The fencing is intended to establish [settler] ownership over the land and create large grazing areas for [settlers’] cattle.”

In several videos, people building the fences can be seen wearing shirts bearing the logo of the Artzenu organization, which, according to its website , works to “strengthen settlement efforts in various parts of the country.” The fence in Farsiya, in the northern Jordan Valley, October 2026. (Jordan Valley Activists) The organization did not respond to an inquiry from The Times of Israel asking whether it was involved in the construction of the fences.

In the last three years, dozens of Bedouin communities in the West Bank have disbanded in response to the threats and violence, with their residents often fleeing to Palestinian cities. According to OCHA, more than 2,000 people were displaced in the Jordan Valley between January 2023 and July 2026 due to settler violence and restrictions on access to grazing lands and other areas. Eleven communities were completely displaced, five of them in 2026.

Based on his mapping, Etkes said some fences, including in the southern Jordan Valley, were erected only after Palestinian residents had already left. “This fencing is intended to prevent people from returning and to consolidate control over the land,” he posited. Hundreds of thousands of dunams cut off According to Etkes, who has driven across the West Bank in an effort to map the fences, construction of the barriers began around seven years ago but has accelerated significantly in recent years.

Advertisement Today, there are approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles) of fencing cutting off Palestinian and Bedouin access to at least hundreds of thousands of dunams (tens of thousands of acres) of land, he said. A map showing fences erected in the Jordan Valley in recent years. (Kerem Navot) Etkes stressed that not all the fences have been mapped, as some were erected across open terrain rather than alongside roads, making them more difficult to document.

Jordan Valley Activists also conducted a partial survey of the fences, primarily in the northern Jordan Valley and near Palestinian homes, based on field visits. The group documented more than 30 kilometers (19 miles) of fencing. A fence blocking the passage of a herd of cattle near Ein al-Hilweh in the northern Jordan Valley, May 2025. (Jordan Valley Activists) For Mohammad, the appearance of the fence has made taking his flock of 300 sheep out to graze prohibitively difficult, forcing him to purchase expensive animal feed instead.

“If I had access to grazing land, I could provide much of what I need myself,” he said. “Now we’re like prisoners. The sheep stay at home. I only take them out to eat and then bring them back.” In Khirbet Samra, a tiny hamlet in the northern Jordan Valley that has also been targeted by settlers, a resident who asked not to be named said a fence erected a year ago had resulted in significantly higher costs to feed his 400 sheep, who cannot reach grazing grounds.

“I used to bring in two truckloads of barley a year,” he said. “Now I have to bring in a truckload every two months. Each truck carries about 20 tons of barley — that costs at least NIS 20,000 ($6,400).” State twice acknowledged fences were illegal In a court filing regarding a petition filed last year over a fence erected near the village of Farsiya, north of Khirbet Samra, the state admitted that the barrier had been unauthorized, though it took until last month to pull it down.

Residents of Farsiya petitioned the High Court in August 2025, two months after the fence appeared. According to Jordan Valley Activists, the fence ran alongside Alon Road, separating the community’s homes from grazing and agricultural lands on the other side of the road. In some sections, the fence passed just 50 meters (164 feet) from residents’ homes. In its response to the petition, filed in November, the state argued that the community’s homes themselves had been built without permits, but acknowledged that the fence had also been erected illegally.

Nevertheless, the fence remained standing for nearly a year. Tawfiq Jabarin, who represented the petitioners, told The Times of Israel that the fence was not dismantled until the court issued an order requiring the state to justify its foot dragging. “The court told them several times, ‘You have to demolish it,’ but they didn’t get the message,” Jabarin said. “They said, ‘We have priorities, we don’t have the resources, and we don’t intend to demolish it now.’

In September, the court issued an order, and then they asked for an extension of a few days, demolished the fence and submitted a response saying they had done so.” The IDF finally dismantled the fence on October 13, locals said. A fence erected near Farsiya in the northern Jordan Valley and dismantled following a High Court petition, October 2026. (Jordan Valley Activists) In September, Jabarin filed filed a High Court petition on behalf of residents of Ein al-Hilweh, another northern Jordan Valley community where a fence was erected in June 2025.

According to the petition, part of the fence was built on private land belonging to the Latin Patriarchate, which has extensive land holdings in the West Bank. In its response, the state said the fence had been erected following several fatal traffic accidents on nearby roads and was intended to prevent animals from entering the roadway. In that case as well, though, it said the barrier would be removed. “Once it became clear that the fencing had been erected on privately owned land, the brigade commander [responsible for the Jordan Valley] ordered that it be dismantled immediately, and the military intends to ensure that the fencing is removed by October 28,” the state told the court.

On October 23, according to activists in the Ein al-Hilweh area who spoke with The Times of Israel, the fence was partially dismantled. The rest of it, and kilometers more of other fences in the Jordan Valley, remains standing. Your next read: ToI Editors' Picks LIMITED TIME OFFER: Join The Times of Israel Community today and you'll receive a physical book of your choice, carefully curated by our editors. Choose between two must-reads: When We See You Again by Rachel Goldberg-Polin, a searing portrait of a mother’s grief and strength