Palestinians granted 66 building permits in West Bank over 11 years vs 22,000 for illegal Israeli settlers
Newly-constructed buildings are pictured in the Israeli settlement of Givat Zeev west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on 23 July 2025
Zein Khalil reports in Anadolu Ajansi (Anadola Agency) on 22 February 2026 (updated 23 February 2026):
Israeli authorities granted only 66 building permits to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank over an 11-year period, while illegal settlers were given 22,000 permits, an Israeli newspaper reported Sunday. According to Haaretz daily, only 66 building permits were issued to Palestinians between 2009 and 2020, while 22,000 permits were granted to illegal Israeli settlers during the same period.
“As most of the West Bank is off-limits to Palestinian development, residents are forced to build without permits,” the paper commented.
It cited widespread demolitions carried out by the Israeli authorities since January in the Taawun neighborhood, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank. The neighborhood is located in Area C and “did not receive building permits from the Israeli authorities, despite being far from any settlement or access road,” said the daily. Al-Taawun, it added, is “just one example of the accelerating pace of demolitions across the West Bank.”
In January alone, the Israeli army demolished a total of 24 Palestinian buildings in Area C due to the lack of building permits.
Rising demolitions
Haaretz, citing the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said at least 2,461 Palestinian buildings were demolished over the past two years due to the lack of building permits, up from 4,984 structures over the previous nine years.
As a result, around 3,500 people lost their homes during that two-year period, it added. OCHA did not specify whether the demolitions took place exclusively in Area C or across the West Bank as a whole.