Israeli army reinforces troops in occupied West Bank

The Israeli army has reinforced its troops in the occupied West Bank, raising the number of military battalions deployed there to 26, Israeli media reported Thursday.

Israel's Channel 12 did not provide further details on the scale of or reasons for the reinforcement.

Separately, the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said Israeli authorities had seized about 15 dunams (1.5 hectares) of land belonging to the city of Al-Bireh in the occupied West Bank.

The commission said the seizure aims to establish a nearly 4,000-meter-long "security route" encircling an illegal settlement built on Jabal al-Taweel land east of the city.

The route effectively creates a "new buffer zone" around the settlement and "restricts Palestinian access to lands" between the settlement's built-up area and the route, the commission said.

According to preliminary map assessments, the military order not only directly confiscates land but also restricts Palestinian access to more than 380 dunams (38 hectares) located between the existing settlement buildings and the route outlined in the order.

The commission said the move was part of an expanding policy adopted by Israeli authorities since Oct. 7, 2023, adding that 46 military orders have been issued to establish buffer zones around settlements during that period.

It said the orders indicate that settlement buffer zones are increasingly being used not as exceptional "security measures," but as a routine mechanism for extending settlement control over Palestinian land without requiring immediate construction plans or formal changes in land ownership.