Thursday, March 5th 2026 – Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have begun a new operation to control movement in the north Jordan Valley, strangling economic transit between important regions of the West Bank and robbing Palestinians of their right to movement. 

They installed lockable barrier gates at the entrance to villages, cut off access to a major Palestinian road and began constructing a military road which breaks ground for a new portion of the illegal Israeli apartheid wall. The IOF is likely to lock these gates on a whim, trapping Palestinian cars inside/outside of their villages for hours or even days. The Jordan Valley villages affected by the operation are considered Palestine’s northern gate into the Arab world, marking this a strategic zone for Israel’s annexation of the Jordan Valley. 

Yesterday, March 5, the occupation forces installed gates at the entrance to five villages: Bardala, Kardala, Ein al-Beida, Zubaidat, and Marj al Naaja. 5,000 Palestinians live in these villages. Three of them, Bardala, Ein al-Beida, and Marj al Naaja, are the largest villages in the North Jordan Valley and considered the economic lifeline of the Tubas Governorate. This illegal siege of Palestinian communities prevents workers, farmers, university students, and doctors from accessing their work, imposing unsustainable restrictions on the population with the ultimate goal of displacing them.

The same day, in the village of Atuf, the IOF closed an important agro-business road using large boulders and mounds of dirt. This road runs from the city of Tubas through the Al-Bqai’a Plain, connecting the villages of Tammoun, Khirbet Ras al-Ahmar, and Atuf and their crop and sheep grazing lands further south/west. It ends at 578 Allon Road, one of the main roads through the Jordan Valley. The new blockade cuts Palestinians off from the commerce of Allon Road and their crop/grazing lands. 

The IOF also began constructing a new “security road” through farm land from the village of Atuf northwards to Khirbet Yarza. It is closed to Palestinians but will likely be open to illegal Israeli settlers. “The new military road will isolate 180,000 dunams or 180 square kilometers,” according to Rashid Khudairi. This will significantly slow agro-business of the Al-Bqai’a Plain, which is the source of most residents’ income.

The new military road breaks ground for the newest portion of Israel’s proposed 482.8 kilometer apartheid wall, spanning from the Occupied Golan Heights (Al-Jawlān) to the Red Sea. The portion will span from the Al Hamra checkpoint to the Tayasir checkpoint, crossing 22 kilometers of Palestinian land. The settler colonial state has already given 70 demolition orders for Palestinian structures (from greenhouses to factories to homes) along the route. The apartheid wall and military road seek to connect a string of illegal settler outposts and displace Palestinians, effectively annexing the West Bank. 

In addition to these events, the systematic theft of water (which began in 1937 with the Israeli Mekorot company) coupled with violent attacks by illegal settlers, plague the entire Jordan Valley on a daily basis. 

Yesterday’s events took place in the Tubas Governorate and the Northern Jordan Valley, which together mark an area of ​​415,000 dunams (415 square kilometers). Following the Oslo Accords, 80% of these Palestinian lands were deemed Area C, placing them under Israeli military law. The International Court of Justice’s 2024 ruling deems Israel’s continued occupation of these lands to be illegal; however, without international intervention to uphold such rulings, this region remains routinely exposed to the Israeli occupation’s worst ethnic cleansing tactics.