On December 4, 2025, Israel’s Civil Administration, the Israeli military body that administers the occupied West Bank, delivered demolition orders to four homes in the Bedouin village of Bir al-Maskoub, east of Jerusalem. But what was peculiar to resident Abu Imad al-Jahaleen was that the notices described the village as being located in E1, a notorious settlement plan set to divide the northern West Bank from its southern side.1

“This is the first time they did this,” al-Jahaleen told Jerusalem Story, referring to the village’s designation.2

In the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar adjacent to Bir al-Maskoub, village leader Eid Abu Khamis said that soldiers from the Civil Administration came to survey the land nearly every day during the first week of December 2025.3

“They went to every house and counted how many houses and how many people are living here,” Abu Khamis said. “They went to the school, too, to get data. And they took pictures of all the houses—that translates to something dangerous.”

The soldiers did not respond to residents’ queries as to what they were doing and for what purpose, Abu Khamis said, but he believes the survey is in preparation to expel and demolish Khan al-Ahmar. The village is comprised of approximately 200 people, half of them children, and it sits in the way of the recently approved E1 settlement bloc.4 Khan al-Ahmar has fought for years in Israeli courts to prevent its demolition and the displacement of residents; the European Union funded a school in the village in order to stave off the village’s demise.

In July 2025, the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing announced the expansion of the Ma‘ale Adumim settlement bloc by 3,522 housing units, and the following month, the Israeli Higher Planning Council, part of the Civil Administration, approved the controversial E1 settlement plan east of Jerusalem, which would see the construction of an additional 3,753 housing units in the West Bank. In total, 7,275 housing units for Jewish settlers are expected to be built in and around the E1 area. The construction of housing on occupied land by a military occupier is a breach of international law, but for decades, Israel has managed to continue its illegal settlement projects without political censure by the international community.

For decades, too, settlement experts have warned that E1 will sever the Palestinian populated area of East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, thereby killing the possibility of a viable Palestinian state, while also eventually displacing Palestinian communities, numbering thousands of people, east of Jerusalem. The delivery of demolition orders to Palestinians in the areas impacted by E1’s pending construction signals impending mass expulsion.

On August 4, 2025, the Civil Administration delivered more than 40 notices to Palestinian businesses in the Palestinian town of al-‘Izariyya, directly next to the Israeli settlement of Ma‘ale Adumim. The orders required that they self-demolish their structures within 60 days to make way for what Israel calls the “Fabric of Life” Road, an extension to Route 4370, linking al-‘Izariyya to the Palestinian villages of ‘Anata and Hizma—effectively diverting Palestinian traffic outside of E1. Those demolitions haven’t yet been enforced.

Yahia Abu Ghalia’s car wash is one of the businesses in al-‘Izariyya that received a demolition order in August 2025. While his business remains open, he points to the row of shuttered shops next to his, explaining that the tenants closed their doors out of fear when they received demolition notices. Abu Ghalia vows not to leave and to keep his business running.

“Even if the demolition happens, I’m going to stay here, I’m not going to leave,” Abu Ghalia told Jerusalem Story.5 “What am I supposed to do?”

“[The E1 Plan will] destroy the economic and daily life of 7,000 Bedouins,” al-Jahaleen, head of the Abu Nuwar Bedouin community, said, explaining they will be blocked from grazing their flocks, accessing their schools, and traveling to al-‘Izariyya, where they go for medical treatment. For al-Jahaleen, who lives between Bir al-Maskoub and al-Ka’abina, a Bedouin village near al-‘Izariyya, E1’s construction means he won’t be able to move from Bir al-Maskoub to al-Ka’abina.