Germany calls on Israel to halt its controversial E1 settlement project, said a foreign ministry spokesperson in Berlin on Friday, warning that construction carries the risk of creating more instability in the West Bank and the region.
“The plans for the E1 settlement project, it must be said, are part of a comprehensive intensification of settlement policy in the West Bank, which we have recently observed,” said the spokesperson at a regular government press conference.
“It carries the risk of creating even more instability, as it would further restrict the mobility of the Palestinian population in the West Bank,” as well as jeopardize the prospects of a two-state solution, the spokesperson added.
Development of E1, an open tract of desert between Jerusalem and the mega-settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, has been under consideration for more than two decades, but was frozen due to US pressure during previous administrations.
Plans for the bloc have cleared the final hurdle before construction on the development, according to a government tender reported earlier in the week.
The Palestinians and much of the international community hold Israeli settlements to be illegal and argue that they harm the chances of the Palestinians establishing a viable state in the West Bank.
The E1 project is especially contentious because it will link Ma’ale Adumim to the capital, creating a contiguous bloc of settlements deep into the West Bank.
Critics say it would prevent the potential establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state in the territory.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has advanced these processes as a minister in the Defense Ministry with responsibility for civilian affairs in the West Bank, has stated that these and other efforts are designed to de facto annex the territory and thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Two Palestinians arrested after attempted Israeli settler attack
Meanwhile, Israeli forces arrested two Palestinian brothers from Atara, near Ramallah in the West Bank, after settlers tried to attack people in the village and let livestock graze next to the brothers’ home, according to Palestinian media.
No Israelis were reported arrested, and there were no reports of injuries. The IDF did not respond to a request for comment.
#Watch | Settlers attack a house in the village of Atara, north of Ramallah, and attempt to attack the residents. pic.twitter.com/yJjnRZNrbE
– Palestinian Information Center (@PalinfoAr) January 9, 2026
Footage published by Palestinian media showed three Hebrew-speaking masked individuals getting out of an Israeli vehicle on a dirt road in Atara.
At least one of them swings a club at a Palestinian man, eliciting yells from other Palestinians on the scene. The Palestinians threaten, in Hebrew, to call the police and demand, in Arabic, that the settlers withdraw their sheep, which cannot be seen in the video.
One of the masked individuals can be heard ordering the other two, in Hebrew, to hold the line against the Palestinians, as one of the other masked individuals films the incident on his phone.
Israeli security forces are also investigating a series of overnight attacks by Israeli settlers on a Palestinian school and cars in the northern West Bank, the IDF said.
According to the military, troops were sent overnight to the outskirts of the village of Jalud, near Nablus, after receiving reports that a school and other property had been vandalized by settlers.
According to Arabic media reports, attackers had set fire to the school’s sports hall and sprayed graffiti.
Palestinian residents try to extinguish a fire set at dawn today by Israeli settler militias at the sports hall of a school in the village of Jalud, south of Nablus. pic.twitter.com/RSFdIP6ji1
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 9, 2026
Separately, the military said it received reports that settlers torched several Palestinian vehicles and damaged property in the nearby village of Bazariya.
#Follow| Settlers burned several cars in Al-Tahta neighborhood in the village of Bazaria last night pic.twitter.com/yPs7yTOpLn
– Shehab News Agency (@ShehabAgency) January 9, 2026
No suspects were located when forces arrived at either scene, according to the IDF, and an investigation into the incidents, the latest in a spate of settler attacks, has been launched.
Security forces said they “condemn violence of any kind” and will continue to act to maintain security and order in the area.
Settler attacks on Palestinians and their property have soared in the two years since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the war in Gaza.
The IDF has recorded more than 750 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence in 2025, up from 675 incidents in 2024.
While arrests in such cases are rare, indictments and convictions are even less common.
