Continuous expansion by Israel of settlements in the West Bank is pushing Palestinians out of their homes and move elsewhere.

The pattern consists of settler attacks on Palestinian farms and villages, often aided and abetted, say locals, by the Israeli military.

According to the West Bank Protection Consortium (WBPC), comprising five NGOs and funded by the EU, between January 2023 and July of this year, almost 2,700 Palestinians, or 421 households, were forced out of their communities.

Europe Editor Tony Connelly speaks to locals struggling to protect their livelihoods as they are pushed off their lands.

At 10am on 2 August, an Israeli was injured in an altercation near an illegal settler outpost north of Ramallah. The settler claimed his attacker had retreated to the adjacent village of Al-Mughayyir.

Within an hour, two busloads of Israeli troops and 18 jeeps seized the village, preventing locals from entering or leaving and shuttering shops.

At that point, ten D9 Caterpillar bulldozers set about uprooting and destroying around 10,000 olive trees, laying waste to a swathe of the valley below the town.

The residents of Al-Mughayyir believe the alleged attack on the settler was a pretext for a prepared plan to confiscate more Palestinian land.

“The accident happened at 10am,” says Marzouq Abu Naem, deputy head of the local municipality. “At 11am, all the security forces were here. Not even the United States could react that fast.”

By the end of the operation, the olive groves had been reduced to a dull swathe of empty earth. Some 43,000 dunams (a unit of land roughly equivalent to one quarter of an acre) of Palestinian land had been seized or at least put off limits to locals.

“We’re talking 10,000 trees,” Abu Naem tells RTÉ News. “That would have provided 5,000 gallons of olive oil, each gallon worth $150. All that income has gone, just like the olive trees themselves. It represented our history, our culture. The owners of the trees, when they saw what had happened, collapsed in grief.”

Six minutes drive away, Turmus Ayya overlooks another valley of olive groves. On the far side is the hilltop Jewish settlement of Shilo, built in 1978 and expanded by 60% in 2012 (a move then condemned by the EU as a provocative breach of international law and contrary to peace negotiations).

“This is absolutely legally my land. And I have the paperwork, I have the title documents, the register”

The valley was already notorious for clashes between Palestinians and settlers: in June 2023, four Israelis were killed, and in response, hundreds of masked settlers firebombed the town, killing one local.

The Hamas attacks of 7 October escalated tensions sharply. Locals say settlers upped their aggressive tactics, expanding into the valley and cutting off access to olive groves, some of which have already been destroyed and replaced by vineyards.

“If I went down to my olive trees, a gun would be drawn against me: leave, or else,” says Yasser Alkam, a US citizen and semi-retired attorney, who returned in 2022 with his wife Jenan, from their home in Anaheim, California, to manage his father’s olive grove in the ancestral home.

“This is absolutely legally my land. And I have the paperwork, I have the title documents, the register.”

Notwithstanding the horrors of Gaza, the pattern of settler expansion in the West Bank has become a new ground zero in the geopolitics of the Middle East.

The pattern consists of settler attacks on Palestinian farms and villages, often aided and abetted, say locals, by the Israeli military. These are focused on what is called Area C, an administrative zone established by the Oslo Accords in which Israel has complete military control, with some civilian services being provided by the Palestinian Authority.

Area C is the most fertile and spacious part of the West Bank and, according to Palestinians, would provide the bulk of a future state.

However, it is a zone with a spectacularly built-in bias in favour of Israeli settlers: permissions for expanding settlements are normally given, while only 1% of applications for Palestinian planning permission is granted.

The seizure of Palestinian land is exacerbated by the demolition of their homes and villages on the basis that – according to the settlers who carry out the demolitions – they don’t have the proper “permits”.

This forces Palestinians to move elsewhere, often out of Area C and into poorer, more crowded parts of Areas A and B, with Bedouin shepherds hounded off their traditional pastures.

A UN inquiry has found that approximately 2,000sq/km have been confiscated in Area C alone since 1967, amounting to more than a third of the West Bank.

Those confiscations are intensifying.

According to the West Bank Protection Consortium (WBPC), comprising five NGOs and funded by the EU, between January 2023 and July of this year, almost 2,700 Palestinians, or 421 households, were forced out of their communities.

“A growing tactic is the establishment of new settler caravans and structures directly beside Palestinian villages,” says a recent WBPC report. “These ‘outposts’ bring intensified violence, constant military presence, and further loss of land and access to services. The effect is to surround communities and gradually make daily life impossible.”

That incremental encroachment through the use of small outposts appears to be the case in Turmus Ayya.

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“That tent we see there,” says Alkam, pointing down to an encampment several hundred metres away in the valley. “Two weeks ago, there was one single tent. Now you can see two, one on the right side of the street and one on the left side. Now they have water tanks, equipment, and it continues to spread out closer and closer to the town.”

Such tactics have already seen communities displaced across the West Bank: in Khallet a-Thabe’, south east of Ramallah, 95% of the village was demolished, forcing locals to live in caves, which were then sealed or destroyed by Israeli forces, according to the WBPC.

“Forcible transfer in the West Bank results from a systematic environment that makes life unlivable: repeated demolitions, denial of permits, settler violence (often in the presence of Israeli forces), land confiscation, restrictions on movement, and cuts to water and electricity,” according to the WBPC report.

In its advisory opinion in July last year, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that such actions were in clear breach of the Geneva Convention, which “strictly prohibits forcible transfer of protected persons,” and that, as the occupying power, Israel is legally responsible.

The report concluded that the “continuous expansion by Israel of settlements and related infrastructure actively contributes to the entrenchment of the occupation”.

That entrenchment appears to be the current policy of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure from far right members of his cabinet.

In November 2023, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the government to “create sterile security areas around (Jewish) communities and roads and prevent Arabs from entering them, including for the purpose of olive harvesting”.

The far-right are now making an explicit link between recognition and settlement expansion.

In July, Smotrich announced that “for every country that unilaterally recognises a Palestinian state, we will establish a settlement.”

Following Ireland’s recognition – alongside Spain, Norway, Armenia and Slovenia – Smotrich said Israel would “recognise” five illegal settlements in the West Bank.

After ten countries this week formally recognised a Palestinian state, Itamar Ben Gvir, another far-right minister, went further.

“The recognition by Britain, Canada, and Australia of a Palestinian state… requires immediate counter measures: the swift application of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (the Israeli name for the West Bank) and the complete dismantling of the Palestinian Authority.”

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump met leaders and senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Jordan, the UAE and Indonesia on the margins of the UN General Assembly and presented them with a 21-point peace plan to end the Gaza War.

They reportedly laid down several conditions to the plan, which develops a number of existing initiatives, and expressed “grave reservations” about Israel annexing the West Bank.

The next day, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he would “not allow” that to happen.

He may have given Israel wiggle room, however, and much will depend on Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu on Monday.

On Thursday, the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar said there was “no intention of even discussing the annexation of Palestinian Authority territories because we don’t want to control the Palestinians”.

However, he added: “What can be discussed, but hasn’t yet been decided, is implementing Israeli law on the Israeli communities located there and not under the Palestinian Authority.”

That would be tantamount to selective annexation.

Palestinians say the Palestinian Authority (PA) is already being slowly asphyxiated by vindictive Israeli security measures.

In June, after Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom announced sanctions against Ben Gvir and Smotrich, the latter ordered the suspension of the indemnity which allows Palestinian banks to interact with their Israeli counterparts in response, he said, to the “delegitimisation campaign against the State of Israel internationally”.

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Given that PA has no central bank or currency, West Bank businesses rely on an interbank arrangement with Israel to import and export goods. Smotrich’s move could be economically devastating.

This comes on the back of the denial of customs clearance revenue due to the PA and the blocking access to West Bank residents working in the service sectors of the Israeli economy.

Locals complain that the Israeli military are increasing road closures and checkpoints, making economic life ever more difficult.

“It’s exporting, going through additional security checks for no reason, more delays getting permits to pass through the commercial checkpoints to get to the port (in Israel),” says Madees Khoury, who works for the Taybeh Brewing Company, whose water supply has been reduced to one day a week after settlers allegedly smashed water pipes serving 14 Palestinian villages near Ramallah.

Nowhere is the link between settlement expansion and the crushing of statehood aspirations more graphically on display than the E1 Construction Project.

Originally conceived in 1991, the plan would provide for the expansion of the large and long established Ma’ale Adumim settlement westward towards East Jerusalem, with an extra 3,400 homes as well as industrial and commercial zones.

The effect would be to link up Ma’ale Adumim with Jerusalem, but, according to critics, it would cut the West Bank off from East Jerusalem, the notional capital of a future Palestinian state, and make travel between the north and south of the West Bank significantly harder.

While the European Union has long condemned the E1 Construction project as threatening the viability of a contiguous Palestinian state, it has been supported by successive Israeli prime ministers, who claim it is important for Jerusalem’s security, and has only been held back due to periodic pressure from the United States.

But Israeli attitudes have hardened, and any denial that the E1 risks the viability of a Palestinian state appears to have been dropped.

On 14 August, Smotrich announced that the project was about to be given the go ahead.

“Those in the world trying to recognise a Palestinian state will get an answer from us on the ground,” he said. “Not through documents, not through decisions or declarations, but through facts. Facts of homes, neighbourhoods, roads and Jewish families building their lives.”

After the Supreme Planning Council duly approved the plan, it was launched by Netanyahu on 11 September. To vigorous applause, he declared: “We said there wouldn’t be a Palestinian state, and we say again there won’t be a Palestinian state. This place is ours. We will take care of our country, our security and our heritage.”

On 12 August, two days before Smotrich’s announcement, Attalah Jahlein, a member of one of 18 Bedouin tribes that have for centuries used the 12sq/km stretch of mountains and valleys as pasture land, received a letter from the authorities.

It stated: “You must vacate the building and/or property within 60 days from the date you receive this notice. After this date, if you do not comply, all legal measures will be taken against you to vacate the building and property, at your own expense.”

In other words, Jahlein’s property would be demolished, and he would have to pay for the demolition.

“At that moment, we felt like it was the end of our existence, but we will keep struggling,” he told RTÉ News.

“It will kill the dream of a Palestinian state, take a lot of land from Jerusalem, and, in particular, it will separate the south from the north of the West Bank. It will destroy Bedouin life in the area.”

In Ma’ale Adumim itself, a pristine and palm tree studded settlement with some 50,000 residents – many from the Jewish diaspora – locals are dismissive of Palestinian claims and enthusiastic about the commencement of the project, claiming it will provide jobs for Palestinians.

“We live here,” says Kobi Eini, a 36-year-old resident.

“People are moving here, we need to expand for more people to move in. It can also lead to a solution. You can’t just stand by and wait.”

Gardaí investigating the murder of Kerry farmer, Michael Gaine requested the assistance of American forensic experts, who had travelled to Ireland to help gardaí carry out a review of the murder of French woman, Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

Officers investigating the murder of Gaine (56), whose dismembered body was found in a slurry tank on his Kenmare farm, sought the assistance of US forensic expert, Suzanna Ryan, who had come to Ireland to use the revolutionary DNA gathering technology M Vac in the Toscan du Plantier case.

Ms Ryan and M Vac chief executive, Jared Bradley, came to Ireland at the end July to examine exhibits in the Toscan du Plantier murder case, including the rock and cavity block used to bludgeon the 39-year-old mother of one to death in west Cork in December 1996.

Ms Ryan and Mr Bradley were brought by Kerry gardaí to the cattle shed at Mr Gaine’s farm at Carrig East 6km from Kenmare.

Gardaí believe Mr Gaine was murdered on March 20th in the cattle shed and his body dismembered before being disposed in the slurry tank beneath the slatted unit. Human tissue was recovered on May 16th after an agriculture contractor found tissue while spreading slurry from the tank.

It’s understood Ms Ryan recovered some minute particles of blood in the shed using the M Vac technology, which involves the application of a solution to a surface, and its subsequent vacuuming up and collection, which then can be sent for analysis to see if it contains any relevant DNA.

Gardaí had hoped that the blood samples recovered from the cow shed might help them identify Gaine’s killer, but the blood was actually bovine blood from calving when it was tested by scientists at Forensic Science Ireland laboratory in Kildare.

[ Sophie Toscan du Plantier: Gardaí awaiting results of tests using advanced DNA collectionOpens in new window ]

Gardaí have previously sought assistance from abroad with team of Dutch investigators using specialised drone equipment detecting soil disturbance.

The Dutch team spent several days using their highly sensitive drone technology flying over the 404 hectare hillside farm to see if it could detect any sign of the soil being disturbed amid garda suspicions that Gaine’s killer may have buried the weapons used to kill the Kerry farmer.

Gardaí found a number of knives on Gaine’s property but don’t believe they were the weapons used to kill him. They had sought the assistance of the Dutch experts to search the land given the huge amount of ground that they had to cover to find a possible disposal site for the weapons.

Gaine lived at Carhoomengar with his wife, Janice, who reported him missing on March 21st. The case was upgraded to a murder inquiry on April 29th.

US citizen Michael Kelley (53) who lived at the old farmhouse at Carrig East in return for helping Gaine on the farm, was arrested but released without charge.

He has denied any involvement in Gaine’s murder.

One sun-filled afternoon in August, I set out by boat around the Seven Hogs – na Seacht gCeanna – off the Maharees on the northern side of the Dingle peninsula in Kerry. The clutch of small islands, uninhabited by humans for more than half a century, rises up from the Atlantic Ocean like little dumplings, each of varying shape and size, from the largest, Oileán tSeanaigh (St Seanach’s Island) to the smallest, Oileán Imill (island on the edge). Scattered between are the others: Gorach (the bird hatchery island), Oileán Bó (cow’s island), Oileán Traolaigh (Terence’s island), Inis Tuaisceart (north island) and An Mhuclach Bheag (small piggery island).

Overlooked by the sandstone Slieve Mish mountain range on the mainland, we weaved our way through the rocky islands, and as we approached each one, birds unsettled by our presence lifted up and away. Pairs of oystercatchers whooshed by, wingtip to wingtip, like planes in an aerial display. But the cormorants were less vulnerable to our disturbance; unmoved, they continued to perch on the rocks, their wings and chests facing the sun as they soaked up the warmth like sunbathers.

As we reached the jagged An Mhuclach Bheag, the boat slowed and lingered loosely on the water, its engine quietened. Within seconds we noticed pairs of large, dark eyes fixed on us: grey seals, their heavily whiskered heads lifted high above the water, had surfaced just a few metres away. They watched us, unfazed, as we watched them. How many were there? It was hard to say. They appeared and disappeared like magicians, slipping silently in and out of view, only to emerge on the other side of the boat moments later. It felt playful, like a game of hide and seek, but with a slightly sinister edge. The larger seals, presumably seasoned in their dealings with humans, kept their distance while staring our way, but the smaller ones, unable to resist satisfying their curiosity, edged closer before diving under the water and out of sight.

[ How have our grey seals adapted to eat venomous weever fish?Opens in new window ]

Halichoerus grypus – literally, “hook-nosed sea pig” – is the somewhat unflattering, yet accurate, name given to the grey seal, by far the larger of our two native seal species, the other being the smaller, round-headed common seal. The first time they were surveyed was in the mid-1960s, when the naturalist RM Lockley spent two autumns travelling along the coast looking for them in his Bedford dormobile campervan, which had a trailer holding a small sea-boat and a 7ft dinghy attached, which he used to explore the coves and caves. Seals share our fondness for Atlantic salmon, which has long brought them into conflict with fishermen. In the 1960s, a bounty of £3 per seal killed was placed on the seal’s lower jaw, mainly in salmon fishery districts. Perhaps for this reason, RM Lockley found the vast majority of the grey seal breeding population off the west coast, many in caves on remote and inaccessible islands, where they were left in peace.

Lockley recorded them in their natural habitat – the marine environment – but seals aren’t averse to spending time in freshwater. Exactly why they do this isn’t fully understood, but a fair guess is the promise of plenty of fish to eat, and in this pursuit, swimming long distances up rivers and over waterfalls is no deterrent. In 1984 a common seal was spotted in Lough Gill in Sligo, having made a marathon journey from the sea at Rosses Point to Sligo town – that’s eight kilometres inland – up a series of rapids in the Garavogue River before swimming several more kilometres into the lake. It’s no surprise this happened in February – the same time when Atlantic salmon leave the ocean and enter rivers to breed – so it seems likely that this particular seal could not resist following (and eating) the fish as they moved upstream, much to the concern of local fishermen. Sadly, by April, it was found shot dead.

[ As much as I love my dog, I can’t ignore the toll of pet flea treatments on aquatic lifeOpens in new window ]

More recently, grey and common seals have been spotted in Lough Leane, the largest of the three lakes in Killarney, about a 15km journey from Castlemaine Harbour, linked to it by the river Laune. With such a bounty of fish on offer in the lake – Killarney shad, Atlantic salmon, Arctic char, brown trout, ferox trout, sea lamprey, perch and rudd – it’s hard to blame the seals for turning their backs on saltwater and making the effort to swim so far inland in pursuit of a good meal.

Fascinatingly, grey seals will try to drive away other species that share their liking for fish. While birdwatching in an inlet of the Isle of Wight in England in 2022, an amateur naturalist, Clare Jacobs, photographed a white-tailed eagle as it swooped towards the sea’s surface. As it did so, an adult grey seal appeared and barked at the eagle, before spitting in its direction in what researchers later described as “a defensive action to drive the eagle away”. It was the first recorded instance of a grey seal using spitting to warn off other species.