Located 28 miles (45 km) north of Jerusalem on Route 60 and organised as a religious community settlement, it is neighboured by the Israeli settlements of Eli and Maale Levona and the Palestinian villages Sinjil, Turmus Ayya and Qaryut, and falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Binyamin Regional Council.

"[8] On 27 November 2011, the Israeli Defense Ministry approved two plans for 119 new housing units built in Shilo, which would expand the settlement by 60%.

The approval came as a response to a petition by Peace Now to the Israeli Supreme Court filed eight months before after construction began on 40 new housing units.

The approval of new and existing construction was condemned by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, Catherine Ashton, as a "provocative action" contrary to international law and Israel's obligations under the Quartet Roadmap, which states that "Israel should not only freeze all settlement activity, but also dismantle those settlements erected since March 2001.

[11] Recently, Shilo has become a hub for Israeli settler violence, with several attacks being staged on the neighboring Palestinian town of Turmus Ayya.

Rabbi Aharon (Arele) Harel served as co-Rosh Yeshiva for five years before resigning from this position prior to the start of 5771 (October 2010).

[17] Midreshet Binat in Shvut Rachel, a midrasha headed by Rabbi Ronen Tamir, was established in 2000 as a branch of the yeshiva.

[19] The international community considers Israeli settlements to violate the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition on the deportation or transfer of parts of an occupying power's own civilian population into occupied territory except in those cases in which the security of the population or imperative military reasons so demand.

In 1980, Israel Finkelstein, an archaeologist from Bar-Ilan University, initiated four seasons of digs and many finds were revealed including coins, storage jars, and other artifacts.

[24] In the summer of 2010, excavations at Tel Shiloh were carried out under the auspices of the Staff Officer for Archeology in the Civilian Administration Antiquities Unit in cooperation with the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council.