Mohammed Abdel-Karim, a Palestinian farmer in the West Bank, watches in trepidation as Israel sinks roots deeper into the occupied territory just as it is preparing to pull out of the Gaza Strip. Abdel-Karim, 70, lives in the village of Esla, adjacent to one of the big West Bank settlement blocs that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has pledged Israel will keep forever under any peace treaty with the Palestinians.
Israel's sprawling West Bank barrier, a project it says keeps out suicide bombers and Palestinians condemn as a land grab, already separates Abdel-Karim from his 50 acres (20.2 hectares) of carob fig, olive and almond trees to the west.
Now, on the western side of the barrier, work is under way to expand the nearby settlement of Alfei Menashe, where some 1,000 housing units are slated to be built in what Israeli authorities call the new neighbourhood of Givat Tal.
"Of course I am happy to see settlers leaving (Gaza). Don't get me wrong, but I won't ever regain my land if they put (settlers) up there," Abdel-Karim said as he pointed to the new project.
Abdel-Karim, who has begun legal proceedings in Israel against confiscation of his land for the barrier, can apply to Israeli authorities for a permit to reach his land through an army-controlled gate.
But he fears that as work proceeds at Givat Tal, construction crews will uproot his trees to make way for housing and infrastructure.
Just recently, Israeli bulldozers opened new roads and built a concrete-made water container that will serve Givat Tal.
Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental group, has estimated Alfei Menashe's population of 5,000 will double once settlers move into Givat Tal and two other housing projects around the settlement, some 5 km (3 miles) from Israel.
Some 240,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and Gaza, territory to which many of them claim a biblical right. The two areas are home to about 3.6 million Palestinians who view settlements as obstacles to peace.
Under Sharon's plan to "disengage" from more than four years of bloodshed with the Palestinians, some 9,000 settlers in all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of 120 in the West Bank are due to be evacuated starting in mid-August.
Opinion polls show a majority of Israelis support the move out of Gaza, territory Sharon said Israel has no hope of keeping in a final peace settlement.
But he says settlements like Alfei Menashe, near the green line separating Israel from West Bank land captured in the 1967 Middle East war, are vital to the security of the Jewish state and "natural growth" of their populations must be accommodated.
Palestinians say Israel's retention of settlement blocs, including territory near Jerusalem, a city at the heart of the Middle East conflict, and construction of bypass roads for settlers will deny them a viable state.
The World Court has said settlements are illegal under international law, a view Israel rejects.
Ahmed Majdalani, the Palestinian cabinet minister in charge of monitoring Jewish settlement activity and the West Bank barrier, accused Israel of using the Gaza pullout to divert attention from its real goal.
"Under the dust of evacuation from Gaza, Israel is stealing West Bank land for the wall," Majdalani said.
Israel has built more than a third of the planned 600 km (370 mile) network of razor wire-tipped fencing and concrete walls, a project the World Court has ruled illegal because its route cuts into occupied territory.
Israel, hit by dozens of suicide bombings after a Palestinian uprising began in 2000, re-routed large barrier segments last year after an Israeli court ruling that it should minimise land confiscation from Palestinians.
The new path cuts through about 8 percent of the West Bank, less than half of what was originally planned. But that is small comfort to the 1,000 people of Esla.
According to UN figures, the village lost 125 acres (50.6 hectares) of land in 1980 when Alfei Menashe was built and 60 acres (24.3 hectares) in 1996 when a perimeter fence was put up around the settlement.
Some 450 acres (182 hectares) of Esla land were isolated when a segment of the West Bank barrier went up, a 2004 UN report showed.
Further to the north, Palestinians are counting the days until the evacuation of four settlements in a corner of West Bank territory that blocks their access to the city of Jenin and a nearby pine forest.
"I will make a huge barbecue meal in the pine wood and invite all friends and relatives to celebrate the (settlers') exit," said Ihab Ibrahim from Jenin. "I just cannot wait to see them leaving so that we can live our normal life."