How Israel’s ‘Blue Line’ team seizes Palestinian land in the West Bank

Little-known Israeli mapping team is redrawing land boundaries as Palestinians face growing illegal settlement expansion.

Bilal Abu Alia looks out at his land in the occupied West Bank, which was confiscated by Israeli authorities [Courtesy of Mutasim Abu Alia]

Al-Mughayyir, occupied West Bank – As the October olive harvest approaches, Bilal Abu Alia stands near his home, gazing at his family’s land – territory he says Israeli authorities have taken from his family in the Palestinian village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah.

Of their original 0.4sq km (100 acres) of land, Bilal explains that his family can now only access a small area that includes their home and a few olive trees.

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Land confiscation in the occupied West Bank doesn’t always begin with a direct seizure. In many instances, the process starts with the redesignation and demarcation of land on official Israeli maps, with the Israeli Civil Administration’s “Blue Line Team” playing an important role.

According to a report published in mid-September by the National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements, a body affiliated with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Blue Line team was officially established in 1999. Its primary role is to identify and formally designate areas that Israeli authorities classify as “state land” .

Comprising surveyors, cartographers and legal experts, the team uses modern surveying technology and geographic information systems to review and redraw those boundaries on official maps, according to the bureau.

The significance of the process is that land included within the boundaries Israel recognises as “state land” can subsequently be allocated for settlement projects, which are illegal under international law.

Israel’s Civil Administration has argued that Blue Line revisions are technical corrections of historic surveying errors. But the United Nations has said that the revisions have essentially expanded the boundaries of land classified by Israel as state property.

The bureau report argues that, in recent years, the Blue Line team has evolved from a technical mechanism for boundary demarcation into a tool increasingly used to accelerate settlement expansion and legitimise settlement outposts.

The team recently re-demarcated areas in the northern and central West Bank totalling almost 0.2sq km (49 acres) that were reclassified from “state land” to land designated for settlement activity, according to the office. That included land that belonged to the Palestinian villages of Jalud, Qaryut, Turmusayya and al-Mughayyir.

Al Jazeera has reached out to Israeli authorities for comment, but has yet to receive a response.

In August 2025, an Israeli settler was shot while encroaching on Palestinian land in al-Mughayyir. Israeli forces subsequently launched a four-day operation in the village, during which bulldozers uprooted thousands of olive trees across much of the village, including the land later taken from Bilal’s family.

“We were informed that we were barred from accessing this land, that it had become a military zone and then state land. We watched as the olive trees planted by my great-grandfather a century ago were bulldozed and uprooted right before our eyes, yet we were powerless to stop it,” Bilal told Al Jazeera.

Israel informed the family that the land had become a closed military zone, off-limits to both Palestinians and settlers. However, shortly after, Bilal noticed a settler plowing the land. After the family lodged a complaint with the military liaison office, the settler stopped ploughing for a few days but soon resumed under the protection of the Israeli army.

“Furthermore, in December 2025, months after the olive trees were uprooted, we attempted to gather the debris to at least salvage the wood,” he added. “We discovered that the land was under camera surveillance; my father, my elderly uncle and I were arrested and held for three days handcuffed, blindfolded and left lying on the cold ground at an army camp.”

The land was once a source of livelihood for Bilal’s extended family, but the family says it can no longer farm it. Meanwhile, settlers continue to enter and use land in the area surrounding their home.

The family attempted to file an objection against the confiscation of their land, but Bilal said he was only given three days to file an objection, leaving them no real opportunity to act, while bulldozers had already begun work on the site.

The implications of the Blue Line team’s work go far beyond merely altering colours or boundaries on a map: A reclassification of land to state property can effectively open it up to construction projects or illegal settlement expansion.

In the case of al-Mughayyir, this occurs within the context of broader settlement expansion that, according to the National Bureau, encircles the village and restricts residents’s ability to access and utilise their land.

This mechanism suggests that land seizure often unfolds in stages: The land is first surveyed and boundaries redrawn before being designated ‘state land’ and then designated for settlement expansion.

In the northern West Bank, the measures add to the continued expansion of Israeli settlements around Jenin. For example, the bureau points to military seizure orders affecting land around Qabatiya, near Jenin.

According to the report, Israel has targeted lands belonging to Qabatiya and the surrounding area in recent weeks, with two military orders confiscating a total of almost 14sq km (5.4 sq miles or nearly 3,500 acres).

Raed Moqadi, a researcher at the Land Research Center, told Al Jazeera that the Blue Line team efforts had accelerated in 2026.

“The Palestinian Authority has submitted objections regarding the team’s work to various international institutions and organisations, but these moves haven’t led to a halt in the measures being taken on the ground,” he explained.

Adnan Kmail says Israeli forces confiscated his land and uprooted his olive trees [File: Mohamad Atiq/Al Jazeera]

The Blue Line team is not the only mechanism affecting control over Palestinian land but instead operates within a wider system involving a web of overlapping measures.

Salah al-Khawaja, a senior official with Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, told Al Jazeera that the policy of controlling Palestinian land operates within an integrated system comprising settlements, pastoral outposts and settler roads, alongside the separation wall, military zones and training areas.

Al-Khawaja linked the measures to a broader political agenda aimed at entrenching Israeli control over Area C , the area of the West Bank under Israeli military and administrative control, in accordance with a plan published by now Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in 2017.

Al-Khawaja noted that the legal process is also part of the system. The majority of land-related cases handled by the commission are resolved in favour of settlers and rulings by the Israeli Supreme Court no longer provide adequate protection for Palestinians in land disputes, he said.

For Palestinians whose land is affected, this ultimately means the loss of land that has often been in their family’s hands for generations.

Adnan Kmail, 62, whose family owns land affected by the recent Israeli military orders in al-Mughayyir, told Al Jazeera that he has never received a clear, written notice regarding what he said was the seizure of 0.1 sq km (25 acres) of his property. Instead, he was informed by the local municipality.

He subsequently watched as Israeli bulldozers uprooted olive trees, some over 60 years old, to make way for an army outpost.

The olive trees provided a source of income for Adnan and his extended family – more than 70 people in total. Adnan said the land produced about 5,000kg (1,100 pounds) of olive oil each season, income the families have now lost.

“We didn’t file an objection because we knew it would be futile. We can’t even go near the land; just a few days ago, soldiers shot a man in the leg simply for passing through the area. My heart aches whenever I think of my land,” Adnan said.

一支鲜为人知的以色列测绘团队正在重新划定土地边界，因为巴勒斯坦人面临着日益严重的非法定居点扩张问题。

比拉尔·阿布·阿利亚眺望着他在被占领的西岸的土地，这片土地已被以色列当局没收。[图片由穆塔西姆·阿布·阿利亚提供]

被占领的西岸穆盖伊尔村——随着十月橄榄收获季的临近，比拉尔·阿布·阿利亚站在家附近，凝视着他家的土地——他说，这片土地已被以色列当局从他家手中夺走，位于拉马拉东北部的巴勒斯坦村庄穆盖伊尔。

比拉尔解释说，他们原本拥有 0.4 平方公里（100 英亩）的土地，现在他的家人只能进入包括他们的房子和几棵橄榄树在内的一小块区域。

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在被占领的西岸地区，土地征用并非总是始于直接没收。在许多情况下，这一过程始于在以色列官方地图上重​​新划定和标明土地，而以色列民政管理局的“蓝线小组”在其中发挥着重要作用。

根据巴勒斯坦解放组织下属机构——保卫土地和抵抗定居点国家局9月中旬发布的一份报告，蓝线小组正式成立于1999年。其主要职责是识别并正式指定以色列当局归类为“国有土地”的区域。

据该局称，该团队由测量员、制图员和法律专家组成，利用现代测量技术和地理信息系统审查和重新绘制官方地图上的这些边界。

该过程的意义在于，以色列承认为“国有土地”的边界内的土地随后可能被分配给定居点项目，而这些项目在国际法下是非法的。

以色列民政部门辩称，蓝线修订是对历史测量错误的修正，属于技术性修正。但联合国表示，这些修订实际上扩大了以色列划定为国有土地的边界。

该局的报告指出，近年来，“蓝线”小组已从划定边界的技术机制演变为一种日益被用来加速定居点扩张和使定居点前哨合法化的工具。

据该办公室称，该团队最近重新划定了约旦河西岸北部和中部总面积近0.2平方公里（49英亩）的区域，这些区域此前被重新划分为“国有土地”，现被划为定居点用地。这些区域包括属于巴勒斯坦村庄贾卢德、卡里尤特、图尔穆萨亚和穆盖伊尔的土地。

半岛电视台已联系以色列当局寻求置评，但尚未收到回复。

2025年8月，一名以色列定居者在穆盖伊尔侵占巴勒斯坦土地时被枪杀。随后，以色列军队在该村展开了为期四天的行动，期间推土机铲除了村庄大部分地区的数千棵橄榄树，其中包括后来从比拉尔家族手中夺取的土地。

“我们被告知禁止进入这片土地，它先是变成了军事区，后来又变成了国有土地。我们眼睁睁地看着我曾祖父一个世纪前种下的橄榄树被推土机夷为平地，连根拔起，却无能为力，”比拉尔告诉半岛电视台。

以色列方面告知这家人，这片土地已成为封闭的军事区，巴勒斯坦人和定居者均不得进入。然而不久之后，比拉尔发现一名定居者正在耕地。这家人向军方联络处投诉后，该定居者停止耕作几天，但在以色列军队的保护下很快又恢复了耕作。

“此外，在橄榄树被连根拔起几个月后的2025年12月，我们试图收集残骸，至少能挽救一些木材，”他补充道。“我们发现这片土地被摄像头监控；我的父亲、年迈的叔叔和我被逮捕，戴上手铐，蒙住眼睛，被关押在一个军营里三天，躺在冰冷的地上。”

这片土地曾是比拉尔大家庭的生计来源，但如今他们表示已无力耕种。与此同时，外来者不断涌入并占用他们家周围的土地。

该家庭曾试图对没收他们的土地提出异议，但比拉尔说他只有三天时间提出异议，这让他们没有真正的机会采取行动，而推土机已经开始在该地施工。

蓝线团队的工作意义远不止于改变地图上的颜色或边界：将土地重新划分为国有财产可以有效地将其开放给建设项目或非法定居点扩张。

以穆盖伊尔村为例，这种情况发生在更广泛的定居点扩张的背景下。据国家统计局称，这种扩张包围了该村，限制了居民进入和利用其土地的能力。

这种机制表明，土地征用往往分阶段进行：首先对土地进行勘测，重新划定边界，然后将其指定为“国有土地”，最后指定用于定居点扩张。

在约旦河西岸北部，这些措施加剧了以色列在杰宁周边定居点的持续扩张。例如，该机构指出，军事当局下达的征地令影响了杰宁附近卡巴提亚周边的土地。

据报道，以色列最近几周对卡巴提亚及其周边地区的土地进行了军事行动，两项军事命令共没收了近 14 平方公里（5.4 平方英里或近 3500 英亩）的土地。

土地研究中心的研究员拉伊德·莫卡迪告诉半岛电视台，蓝线团队的努力在 2026 年加快了步伐。

他解释说：“巴勒斯坦权力机构已就该团队的工作向多个国际机构和组织提出异议，但这些举措并未导致实地措施的停止。”

阿德南·克迈勒称，以色列军队没收了他的土地，并拔掉了他的橄榄树。[图片：穆罕默德·阿提克/半岛电视台]

蓝线小组并不是影响巴勒斯坦土地控制的唯一机制，而是在一个涉及一系列相互重叠措施的更广泛体系中运作。

殖民和隔离墙抵抗委员会高级官员萨拉赫·哈瓦贾告诉半岛电视台，控制巴勒斯坦土地的政策是在一个综合系统中运作的，该系统包括定居点、牧区和​​定居者道路，以及隔离墙、军事区和训练区。

阿尔-哈瓦贾将这些措施与更广泛的政治议程联系起来，该议程旨在巩固以色列对 C 区（西岸地区，由以色列军事和行政控制）的控制，这符合现任以色列财政部长贝扎莱尔·斯莫特里奇在 2017 年公布的一项计划。

阿尔-哈瓦贾指出，法律程序也是该体系的一部分。他说，委员会处理的大多数土地案件都以定居者胜诉告终，以色列最高法院的裁决已无法为巴勒斯坦人在土地纠纷中提供充分的保护。

对于土地受到影响的巴勒斯坦人来说，这最终意味着失去他们家族世代相传的土地。

62岁的阿德南·克迈勒(Adnan Kmail)的家族在穆盖伊尔(al-Mughayyir)拥有土地，该土地受到以色列近期军事命令的影响。他告诉半岛电视台，他从未收到过关于其0.1平方公里（25英亩）土地被征用的明确书面通知。相反，他是由当地市政当局通知的。

随后，他亲眼目睹以色列推土机连根拔起橄榄树，其中一些树龄超过 60 年，为军队哨所腾出空间。

橄榄树曾是阿德南及其大家庭（共70多人）的收入来源。阿德南说，这片土地每个产季能产出约5000公斤（1100磅）橄榄油，而如今，这些家庭失去了这笔收入。

“我们没有提出异议，因为我们知道这样做毫无意义。我们甚至都不能靠近那片土地；就在几天前，士兵们仅仅因为一个人路过那里就开枪打伤了他的腿。每当我想起我的土地，我的心就痛不欲生，”阿德南说道。