The Jordan Valley, April 21, 2026 (WAFA) – Al-Harith Al-Husni
On a quiet night in the northern Jordan Valley, while the Palestinian families living in Ain al-Hilweh were fast asleep, settlers were demolishing the al-Malih school and the surrounding residences in Hammamat al-Malih in the eastern part of the Tubas Governorate.
The distance between the two gatherings is not great, and can be estimated with the naked eye to be no more than five kilometers.
The demolition of the school on the night of April 21st was a clear and explicit declaration that an important section of the road connecting Tubas and the northern Jordan Valley had entered a state of permanent desolation.
According to official figures from the Directorate of Education, the school had 70 students last year. The number decreased to thirty at the beginning of the current academic year, then to 16, and then it was emptied, coinciding with the continued forced displacement of Palestinian families from the northern Jordan Valley due to settler attacks.
The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission documented 23,827 attacks carried out by the Israeli occupation forces and settlers during the past year against Palestinian citizens and their properties in various governorates, in a record number that reflects the shift of the occupation’s policies from managing control to imposing it as a fully-fledged coercive system of governance.
The data shows that the settlers carried out 4,723 attacks, in addition to 720 attacks carried out in direct partnership between the two parties, which confirms that settler terrorism is no longer a marginal act or outside the control of the state, but rather an organic part of an official policy that provides it with cover and protection, and employs it as a field tool to expand control over the land and impose irreversible realities.
The demolition of an educational institution that was heavily relied upon to solidify the Palestinian presence in the northern Jordan Valley is not the most painful event. Although the school’s demolition is the latest in a series of attacks carried out by settlers, the danger it poses extends far beyond that.
To simplify the data a little, this section of the road that starts from the Tayasir military checkpoint east of Tubas, and ends at the Ain al-Hilweh junction in the northern Jordan Valley, was in the past (until about three years ago), rejoicing in the dense Palestinian presence.
In addition to the spread of citizens’ tents and residences in the communities of (Al-Burj, Al-Mayta, Hammamat Al-Malih, and Umm Al-Jamal), the sight of the spread of Palestinian livestock herds and the sounds of the shepherds gave those passing by a feeling of absolute security.
With the entire northern Jordan Valley now part of a new equation created by settler terrorism, this section of the road has become completely devoid of Palestinians.
According to a report issued by the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B’Tselem, about 41 Palestinian families comprising about 152 individuals were forced to leave these communities.
Ayed Zawahra, one of those who were forced to leave the “Al-Mayta” community two months ago towards another area in the northern Jordan Valley, says: “Before the spread of settlers and colonial outposts near us, we did not feel afraid while passing by the side of the road.”
Palestinian vehicles were constantly using this road, the man added.
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli military attacks and settler violence in the West Bank, according to B’Tselem, have led to the displacement of residents on a scale unprecedented since the occupation of the West Bank in 1967.
As of March 16, 2026, Israel had forcibly displaced over 4,003 Palestinian communities from their homes in Areas B and C, and a further 507 people were displaced from their homes in 16 communities that were partially displaced. At least nine other communities were displaced before October 7, 2023.
This displacement, which affected entire communities in the northern Jordan Valley, led to a rapid transformation in the appearances that prevailed in the vibrant street.
This transformation can be measured through observation and by hearing firsthand accounts from citizens, traders, and human rights activists concerned with the affairs of the Jordan Valley.
In a long queue, Abdullah Daraghmeh waited his turn to cross the Ein Shibli checkpoint, located at the eastern entrance to the village of Ein Shibli in the central Jordan Valley, on his way to his workplace in the northern Jordan Valley. If Daraghmeh had used the Tayasir checkpoint and the road beyond it, he would have saved himself time, effort, and money. But he told a WAFA correspondent: “I feel relatively safer using the road after the Ein Shibli checkpoint to reach the northern Jordan Valley, compared to the road after the Tayasir checkpoint.”
Other traders and citizens said similar things.
These testimonies give a true picture of the scale of the transformation on this road. However, despite this, there is still very little traffic from citizens using it.
Fares Faqha said: “Sometimes I use this road (…), the absence of a Palestinian presence and the spread of settlers is frightening.”
Faqha himself compares two different phases of this road. He says: “Years ago, dozens of Palestinian vehicles used this road daily; today the number has decreased significantly.”
The description of the road can be summarized as a road that lacks safety.
Zawahra says: “We used to use the road all the time without fear, but today travel is only for necessities.”
This fear that now covers the road is the result of a number of colonial outposts and repeated incursions by settlers into Palestinian communities that were forced to leave in batches at earlier times in the past few years.
According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, there will be nine settlements and 15 settlement outposts in Tubas by the end of 2025.
With the encroachment of settlers in the northern Jordan Valley, and the continuous decrease in the number of Palestinian families remaining in the Bedouin communities in the northern Jordan Valley (with the exception of the villages of Bardala, Kardala, and Ein al-Bayda), it is not far-fetched to imagine that all the roads connecting Tubas and the northern Jordan Valley will become desolate.
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/ A.F.
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