Israel has recently announced the construction of a major underground tunnel that would become the only route connecting 1.5 million Palestinians in the occupied southern West Bank with the northern part of the territory.
The project is part of a wider settlement initiative, so-called the “Fabric of Life,” which will drastically alter movement patterns within the West Bank, but definitely not in the name of Palestinian welfare.
The route is planned to bypass the eastern outskirts of occupied Jerusalem through the Judean Desert, forcing Palestinian traffic from the Bethlehem and Hebron governorates to reach Jericho in Jordan Valley underground. The Az-Zaim checkpoint would be removed, too, turning Road-1 into an Israeli-only route, with the surface area made entirely inaccessible to Palestinians.
“This tunnel project, marketed under a misleading name, is one of the most dangerous Israeli schemes,” says a Palestinian political activist from Al-Eizariya, occupied East Jerusalem, who will be referred to as Khaled throughout this piece to protect his identity.
The targeted 12-square-kilometer E-1 (East-1) area would effectively extend Jerusalem’s boundaries. This 35 km by 25 km strip would cut across the West Bank, annexing it into Israel.
According to Khaled, who is deeply familiar with the area, the project swallows thousands of dunums (1,000 square metres) of land from the towns and villages of Al-Eizariya, Abu Dis, Al-Sawahra, and Az-Zaim.
“It’s a massive land grab. The route passes through Jabal Al-Baba and along the separation wall all the way to Az-Zaim, and it aims to tighten settlement expansion and displace Palestinians living there,” Khaled tells TRT World.
Despite its $90 million price tag, the project will not be financed by Israeli taxpayers. Instead, it will draw from a fund filled by customs revenues Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority; money that is legally owed to Palestinians but frequently withheld or diverted by Israel.
While framed as a transportation development plan by the Israeli media, the tunnel is designed to consolidate Israeli control in occupied East Jerusalem by restricting Palestinian access altogether, sources on the ground confirm.
“When the occupation started tightening entry into Al-Eizariya recently, many Jerusalemite families had to leave there. One man I know told me he now arrives at work late every day because of the road restrictions. The occupation doesn’t want Jerusalemites to stay; neither in Jerusalem nor in the West Bank,” says Khaled.
“The goal is to expel us entirely from Palestine,” he adds.
Khaled also points out that emigration from Palestine is steadily rising, a trend he believes is no coincidence. In his view, the growing number of illegal settlement expansion projects and increased restrictions are all part of a deliberate strategy to pressure Palestinians to leave.
“Today, settlers are committing abuses in the northern West Bank and slowly advancing toward Ramallah. Unfortunately, few people realise this is a cancer, quite an insidious one.”
As of early 2025, OCHA identified 849 movement obstacles across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Hebron, restricting 3.3 million Palestinians. Alongside the 712-km Barrier, these controls severely limit freedom of movement, access to essential services, and deepen social and territorial fragmentation.
Further annexation for ‘Greater Jerusalem’
The tunnel project is actually a part of a much broader Israeli annexation plan known as “Greater Jerusalem,” a strategic vision to link occupied East Jerusalem, which was unilaterally annexed by Israel in 1981, to Israeli settlements sprawling eastward, all the way to the Jordan Valley.
First conceived under former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the early 2000s, the plan seeks to permanently absorb large sections of the occupied West Bank into what Israel considers its capital region.
Central to this strategy is the E-1 corridor, a 12-square-kilometre area that forms the geographic backbone of Israel’s illegal expansion towards the Jordan Valley.
The “Fabric of Life” tunnel cuts through this zone, carving out a direct Israeli-controlled strip from West to East and enclosing Palestinian areas within isolated pockets.
A similar precedent already exists with the “Sovereignty Road,” which includes an underground bypass under Israel’s Road-1.
This redirected Palestinian travel away from Israeli traffic lanes, reinforcing segregation. Combined, both road projects leave almost no corridor for Palestinians to move freely through or around East Jerusalem.
“After the tunnel project, thousands of dunums will be confiscated from Al-Eizariya, Abu Dis, Al-Sawahra, and Al-Za’im, denying people their land and rights,” Khaled says.
“In terms of movement, if I want to go to Ramallah today, it takes about 30 minutes. After this tunnel, the route could take up to two hours via Jericho. It’ll be exhausting.”
Annexation under garb of genocide
The acceleration of these annexation projects comes amid Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, which has killed over 58,000 people, although planning for the tunnel predates the current massacre.
In 2021, Israel allocated nearly $4.6 million to begin the first phase of the “Fabric of Life” road.
The initial phase focused on isolating the towns of Al-Eizariya and Abu Dis, located just east of Jerusalem. Historically intertwined with the city itself, these towns have become targets for separation as Israel seeks to erase Palestinian connectivity in the area.
Today, they lie at the crossroads of the Sovereignty and Fabric of Life tunnel routes; the literal frontlines of territorial fragmentation.
The transformation of the area began decades ago with the construction of Maale Adumim in the late 1970s, now one of the largest and most controversial Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Built illegally under international law on confiscated Palestinian land just east of Jerusalem, Maale Adumim sits at the heart of the E1 corridor and plays a central role in Israel’s broader annexation strategy.
Its location threatens to sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, undermining the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state. Today, it is home to over 40,000 Israeli settlers and is officially designated as a city under Israeli law, despite widespread international condemnation.
As part of the “Fabric of Life,” removal of the Az-Zaim checkpoint will ensure seamless movement for Israeli illegal settlers around Maale Adumim.
According to Khaled, the network of daily restrictions imposed by the occupation including checkpoints and roadblocks has drastically disrupted people’s lives, particularly in the areas of education and healthcare.
“In the current situation in Al-Eizariya, Abu Dis, and Al-Sawahra, which are practically the eastern gateway to the occupied capital, movement has become extremely difficult after Israel began genociding Palestinians.”
“The occupation keeps shutting down checkpoints all the time, and it hits school kids the hardest. I’ve seen kids just turning around and going back home because the buses couldn’t get into town with all the road closures,” Khaled explains.
“Even the buses heading to Jerusalem can’t get into Al-Eizariya now because the occupation closed the only entrance. So, students end up going back home, and we’re basically losing a whole generation trying to get an education.”
Unfortunately, the suffering Palestinians have to endure is not limited to education only.
Located on the main road linking northern and southern parts of the West Bank, the Container Checkpoint has become one of the most notorious sites of violations, with frequent reports of harassment, arbitrary detention, and death, ever since Israeli genocide started.
“I personally know a female student from Birzeit University who was violently beaten by male soldiers and thrown aside. When I spoke to her, she told me even the young men nearby didn’t dare help, because everyone knows that if you get out at that checkpoint, you’re likely to be shot.”
What might seem like a dystopian nightmare is, for many Palestinians as Khaled depicts, a brutal daily reality.
“Many people lost their lives, my own mother included,” he says, his voice breaking as he recalls how she died at a checkpoint after being unable to reach a hospital.
