Israel West Bank 2025-

13 March
Destroy, displace, dismantle: Israel’s Gaza doctrine comes to Lebanon
The strategy that devastated Gaza is being replicated in Lebanon: Displace civilians, destroy infrastructure and fragment governance.
By Jonathan Whittall, Humanitarian leader and political analyst from South Africa.
(Al Jazeera Opinion) … In the West Bank, Israel has spent decades fragmenting territory and denying Palestinians any contiguous geography. Water wells sealed with cement, homes demolished over impossible-to-obtain permits, herders pushed from their land by illegal settlement outposts. In Gaza, the same logic was applied with far greater speed and fury.

25 February
Israeli army, settlers attack Palestinians in Hebron area of West Bank
(Al Jazeera) Four Palestinians wounded in settler attack, while several others shot in raid by Israeli military south of Hebron in the occupied territory.
A number of Palestinians have been injured in separate attacks by the Israeli army and settlers in the Hebron area of the occupied West Bank, amid an escalating wave of state-backed violence as Israel concurrently continues its genocidal war on Gaza.
In ad-Dhahiriya, about 24km (15 miles) southwest of Hebron, Israeli forces fired live and rubber bullets as they carried out a raid on Tuesday night, security sources told the Wafa news agency.

23 February
Israeli settlers deface, set fire to West Bank mosque during Ramadan
Attack on Nablus-area mosque is latest in surge of Israeli settler and military violence targeting Palestinians
(Al Jazeera) Israeli settlers have defaced and set fire to a mosque in the occupied West Bank during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, marking the latest incident in a wave of Israeli violence against Palestinians in the territory.
The Wafa news agency reported on Monday that settlers graffitied racist slogans on the walls of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq Mosque, located between the towns of Sarra and Tal, near Nablus in the north of the West Bank.

17 February
Thomas L. Friedman: Netanyahu Plays Trump and American Jews for Fools — Again
While keeping Trump focused on the Iranian missile and nuclear threat — which, though reduced, is still very real and will have to be dealt with diplomatically or militarily — Bibi is fundamentally threatening broader U.S. interests in the Middle East, not to mention the security of Jews all over the world. In what way? I cannot put it any more succinctly than Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, did.
“A violent and criminal effort is underway to ethnically cleanse territories in the West Bank,” he wrote in an essay in Haaretz this month. “Gangs of armed settlers persecute, harm, wound and even kill Palestinians living there. The rampages include burning olive groves, houses and cars; breaking into homes; and physically assaulting people.” He continued: “The rioters, the Jewish terrorists, storm Palestinians with hate and violence with one objective: to force them to flee from their homes. All this is done in the hopes that the land will then be prepared for Jewish settlement, en route to realizing the dream of annexing all the territories.”
… Israel’s accelerating attempts toward annexation of the West Bank and to permanently remain in Gaza — and deny Palestinians political rights in both areas — are as morally reckless and demographically insane as would be the U.S. annexing Mexico.
Ehud Olmert: A Settler Drive to Ethnically Cleanse Palestinians Is Underway in the West Bank. Israel’s Security Apparatus Is Complicit
A militia of hundreds of Jews is operating in the West Bank with direct and indirect backing from Israeli government officials, while security agencies have deliberately chosen not to take action against them

9- 11 February
‘A step in the wrong direction’: Israel’s West Bank plans prompt global backlash
US, Britain, EU and Arab nations condemn plans that Israeli ministers say will ‘kill the idea of a Palestinian state’
(The Guardian) Israeli measures to tighten its control of the West Bank have prompted a global backlash, including a signal from Washington restating the Trump administration’s opposition to annexation of the occupied territory.
Announcing the measures, which involve extending Israeli control in areas that are currently under Palestinian administration, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, made clear they were aimed at strengthening Israeli settlements in the West Bank and pre-empting the emergence of an independent sovereign Palestine.
Israeli minister calls West Bank measures ‘de facto sovereignty,’ says no future Palestinian state
(AP) The steps “actually establish a fact on the ground that there will not be a Palestinian state,” Energy Minister Eli Cohen told Israel’s Army Radio.
Israel Gives Itself More Control Over Occupied West Bank
The security cabinet took actions that make it easier for Jews to buy land in the territory. Critics say the changes violate the Oslo Accords and international law and accelerate attempts to annex the land.
Israel’s government has taken unilateral steps to give itself greater control over the occupied West Bank, challenging President Trump’s opposition to Israeli annexation of the territory in a move widely considered a violation of international law.
The measures, which make it easier for Jewish settlers to buy land and undercut the Palestinian Authority in parts of the West Bank that it administers, appear to flout important agreements that Israel signed under the Oslo peace process decades ago.
The changes were made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet at a closed-door meeting on Sunday. By enhancing Israel’s control over West Bank territory the Palestinians want for a future state, they effectively advance the cause of annexation by degrees — continuing a strategy that the government has been pursuing for years.
But they come after Mr. Trump’s recent, explicit rejection of annexation, his acknowledgment of the Palestinians’ aspirations to statehood — made explicit in his peace plan for Gaza — and his support for political talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Israeli plans deepen de facto annexation of occupied West Bank
Israel approves plans to expand its power across the occupied West Bank, making it easier to seize Palestinian land illegally.
(Al Jazeera) While the world remains fixated on the devastation in Gaza and escalating regional tensions, the Israeli government has quietly executed a “legal coup” in the occupied West Bank, drawing condemnation from Palestinians.
Late on Sunday, Israel’s security cabinet ratified a series of decisions pushed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz. The new measures, which aim to expand Israel’s power across the occupied West Bank, will make it easier to seize Palestinian land illegally.
Eight Muslim countries slam Israel’s ‘illegal’ West Bank annexation push
In joint statement, countries urge international community to ‘compel Israel to halt its dangerous escalation’.
Eight Muslim-majority countries have denounced Israel for trying to impose “unlawful Israeli sovereignty” in the occupied West Bank, after it approved controversial new measures expanding its control and making it easier for Israeli settlers to buy land.
Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates condemned Israel’s move “in the strongest terms” on Monday, according to a Saudi Foreign Ministry statement.

26 January
How Israel is planning to build an ‘apartheid road’ – video
(The Guardian) Israel plans to start work next month on a bypass that will close off the heart of the occupied West Bank to Palestinians and cement the de facto annexation of an area critical for the viability of a future Palestinian state. The road is a key part of the blueprint for a vast illegal new settlement in the E1 area east of Jerusalem, which would fragment the occupied West Bank. The far-right Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the plans were intended to ‘bury the idea of a Palestinian state’

13 January
Israel poised to start construction of bypass through heart of West Bank
Road project, part of blueprint for new illegal settlement in E1 area east of Jerusalem, is considered a tool of annexation
(The Guardian) Israel plans to start work next month on a bypass road that will close off the heart of the occupied West Bank to Palestinians and cement the de facto annexation of an area critical for the viability of a future Palestinian state.
The road is a key part of the blueprint for a vast illegal new settlement in the E1 area east of Jerusalem, which would fragment the occupied West Bank. The Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the plans were intended to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”.
Designed as a sealed transit corridor for Palestinian vehicles, the bypass will provide Israel with a pretext to bar Palestinians from existing roads in the planned settlement area, where only Israeli vehicles will be permitted.

2025

1 December
It’s not just Gaza. From the West Bank to Syria and Lebanon, Israel’s onslaught continues
Nesrine Malik
Broken ceasefires, bombing, ground incursions and mounting deaths: Israeli imperialism is now expanding across the region

25 November
Israel’s systematic campaign to expel West Bank Palestinians (video)
(Al Jazeera) The UN has documented nearly 3,000 settler attacks across the occupied West Bank since October 2023, driving communities from their land in what Palestinians say is a deliberate, violent campaign to displace them.

20 August
Israel approves controversial West Bank settlement project
E1 settlement expansion would divide territory, complicate 2-state solution efforts
(CBC) Israel gave final approval for a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank that would effectively cut the territory in two. Palestinians and rights groups say it could destroy plans for a future Palestinian state.
Settlement development in E1, an open tract of land east of Jerusalem, has been under consideration for more than two decades, but was frozen due to U.S. pressure during previous administrations.
On Wednesday, the project received final approval from the Israeli government planning and building committee after the last petitions against it were rejected on Aug. 6. If the process moves quickly, infrastructure work could begin in the next few months, and construction of homes could start in around a year.
The plan includes around 3,500 apartments to expand the settlement of Maale Adumim, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said during a news conference at the site last Thursday. Smotrich cast the approval as a riposte to Western countries that announced their plans to recognize a Palestinian state in recent weeks.

14 August
UN protests Israeli minister’s proposal of settlement to ‘bury’ idea of Palestinian state
Settlement would effectively divide Israeli-occupied West Bank, cut it off from East Jerusalem
(Thomson Reuters via CBC) Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that work would start on a long-delayed settlement that would divide the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, a move his office said would “bury” the idea of a Palestinian state.
The Palestinian government, allies and campaign groups condemned the scheme, calling it illegal and saying the fragmentation of territory would rip up peace plans for the region.
Standing at the site of the planned settlement in Maale Adumim on Thursday, Smotrich, a settler himself, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump had agreed to the revival of the E1 development, though there was no immediate confirmation from either.