From the roof of Eden Eliyahu’s apartment building on Eliyahu Ha-Navi St. in one of Rosh Ha'ayin’s newest neighborhoods, a visitor looking towards the south sees stunning views of the nearby Migdal Tzedek nature reserve. But it’s the view to the east that has Psagot Afek’s residents concerned: illegal Palestinian buildings as close as 500 meters to their homes.

“If anything like October 7 happens here, the terrorists will get to the gate of the kindergarten on foot before I leave the office and get into my car,” Eliyahu tells The Press Service of Israel. She works for an insurance company in Petah Tikva about 15 km away, but since October 7, mostly works from home so as not to send her daughter to kindergarten.

The closest Palestinian village, Dayr Balut, is some five kilometers from the security barrier, but around 150 illegal Palestinian structures fill the open territory between the village and the barrier, according to Regavim, a non-governmental organization that monitors illegal Palestinian construction and land theft in Judea and Samaria. Some of the buildings stand in an army firing range.