The term "terror tunnels" strikes fear into our hearts – images of darkness, concrete, suffocation, helpless hostages, or terrorists bursting from the earth. Yet there's another kind of tunnel, just as sophisticated and dangerous, taking shape right in front of us. These aren't hidden underground; they're being built above it. Across Area C, 4,900 kilometers of illegal roads have been carved out, forming a sprawling, hazardous web of Palestinian control in Judea and Samaria. They're not digging – they're paving.
Consider this: 4,900 kilometers is roughly the distance from wherever you're sitting in Israel to Iceland. Right under Israel's nose, the Palestinians have built an extensive road network, and they're expanding it month by month. In just the last year, they added 106 kilometers. By contrast, Israel paved around 300 kilometers of roads in 2024. In Area C, where about 200,000 Palestinians live, their paving outpaces Israel's by a staggering 15-to-1 ratio. Take a moment to absorb that.
These illegal roads are more than just pathways – they're a serious security risk. They enable terror cells, gunmen, and weapons smugglers to move freely. The new routes create lawless zones, offering safe havens for car thieves and criminals beyond the reach of security forces. These aren't harmless byways; they're lifelines for Palestinian terrorism, endangering every Israeli.
But the danger doesn't end there. Road by road, kilometer by kilometer, Palestinian control over the land is tightening. This is the infrastructure and the groundwork for a Palestinian state. The equation is simple: wherever a route is carved, houses follow. The takeover of land always begins with access roads. Hundreds of "agricultural" dirt paths have turned into illegal villages in Area C, quietly creating an Arab continuum from the Galilee to the Negev through Judea and Samaria. The new roads connect Arab villages while isolating Israeli settlements.
Sadly, these pirate roads are here to stay. An illegal house? It can be demolished. A road? You can cover it with dirt or rocks, dig trenches in it, but after one or two rains, it's back in use. Every road or dirt path becomes a fait accompli, an irreversible claim on the land. The path endures, and control slips into Palestinian hands.
Over the past year, there's been a welcome shift in Israel's approach to tackling illegal Palestinian construction. But in this case, a different, bolder strategy is needed: not reaction, but prevention. Not enforcement after the roads are paved and the illegal constructions are erected, but stopping all of it upfront, by creating true deterrence on the ground.
Solutions exist – confiscating engineering equipment, seizing tools, imposing fines hefty enough to make any contractor think twice. Yet these steps are not being taken decisively enough. It's clearly not at the top of the priority list, and the damage becomes harder to undo. The tunnels in Gaza and the illegal roads in Judea and Samaria are two sides of the same coin. Hamas dug an underground control network, while the Palestinian Authority is paving an above-ground one, in plain sight. Israel cannot afford to lets its guard down once more. October 7 taught us a hard lesson to not underestimate the threat. We must take the threat seriously. The time to act and halt this land takeover is now. Delay any longer, and it may be too late.
The writer is the director of the field department at the "Regavim" movement.
