A new policy shift has quietly reshaped control over land in the occupied West Bank, following decisions taken earlier this month by Israel’s inner governing body. Measures approved behind closed doors have granted settlers broad freedom to acquire land without effective oversight, a move critics say amounts to silent annexation carried out through legal and administrative means rather than formal declaration, against the backdrop of a wider genocidal war affecting the region.

The changes allow a small but highly organised settler movement to impose irreversible realities on the ground. By removing restrictions that previously limited land ownership to local residents and registered companies, settlers are now able to pursue direct purchases, opening the door to fraud, coercion and manipulation of property records. At the same time, Palestinian administrative authority in several areas, including parts of Hebron, has been further hollowed out, despite existing agreements and international legal frameworks that define these zones as outside Israeli sovereignty.

Central to the shift is the dismantling of long-standing protections around land registration. Opening sensitive records to public access weakens safeguards that once protected absent owners and reduced the risk of forgery and forced sales. Rights advocates warn that extremist settler organisations now have greater access to detailed property information, increasing pressure on landholders and accelerating dispossession through legalistic channels rather than overt force.

The report also points to the revival of state-backed mechanisms for land acquisition, involving bodies linked to long-established settlement institutions. In parallel, Israeli enforcement agencies have been handed expanded powers in areas nominally under Palestinian civil control, justified on grounds such as archaeology or environmental protection. These powers enable demolitions and the freezing of development projects, effectively reasserting control over territory and embedding settler presence deep inside Palestinian land during an ongoing genocidal war that has already redrawn the region’s political and humanitarian landscape.