The community of Ras Ein al-Auja in the southern Jordan Valley is one of the largest Palestinian communities remaining in Area C of the occupied West Bank. As 2025 draws to a close, settlers have launched an operation aimed at expelling the community, completing a process through which—assisted by the army and police—they previously succeeded in driving out the neighboring community of al-Maraj’at.

In the past year, two illegal outposts have been established very close to Ras Ein al-Auja. Their residents harass the community on a daily basis, instilling fear and intimidation. This is a planned and organized operation, whose peak is unfolding today (31 December 2025). This morning settlers arrived at the village with two tractors, accompanied by the army and a land inspector from the regional council. Upon arrival, the tractors began plowing land in the heart of the village, encroaching on private courtyards, tearing up the paved road used by residents, and severing the electricity supply cable to their homes.

Activists from Looking the Occupation in the Eye and international volunteers maintaining a “protective presence” in the village were told by the soldiers on site that the land located within the village belongs to the Yitav settlement and that there is authorization to prepare it for sowing. The land is adjacent to residents’ homes, and when settlers attempted to plow this same plot about six months ago, in May, the Civil Administration halted the work.

Human rights activists attempted to delay the plowing pending a careful and thorough clarification of land ownership rights. However, the soldiers (some of them masked), accompanied by the regional council’s land inspector, repeatedly claimed that there was authorization to plow the field next to residents’ homes. They said the settlers had reached an agreement with the neighboring Yitav settlement, which they asserted is the landowner. The implication of creating such an enclave in the heart of the village is that the plan is to establish an outpost that would force the community’s displacement, as has happened in nearby communities, foremost among them al-Maraj’at.

At midday, the settlers’ invasive action was halted following an order by the Civil Administration. Nevertheless, dozens of the invading settlers—including founders of neighboring illegal outposts—were permitted to remain within the village. The Administration’s decision did not sit well with the settlers. They moved toward residents’ homes, threatened them, and attempted to harm them and their property. They were joined by herds of sheep and camels led by youths from the outposts, a move that further intensified friction with residents.

The settlers’ end-of-year operation began yesterday (30 December 2025), when dozens of settlers accompanied by Border Police and army forces raided Ras Ein al-Auja, based on an unfounded claim that “dozens of Arab rioters from the village of Auja al-Fauqa in the Jordan Valley recently attacked shepherds from a farm near the settlement of Yitav with clubs and stones. One shepherd was injured in the face.” During the raid, settlers entered residents’ animal pens under army protection (a common practice following claims that livestock were stolen). Five residents were arrested (and released the following day), and an elderly resident was evacuated to hospital after settlers attacked him. The village was blocked for approximately two hours by settlers.

Looking the Occupation in the Eye, whose activists arrive daily to provide a “protective presence” in the village, issued a statement expressing concern over the events and warning against settlers exploiting the chaos to sow destruction in the village, drive its residents out, and prevent their return.