The attack on the West Bank – Not in our name

The Israeli government has been accelerating plans for West Bank settlement expansion during the whole period of It’s war on Gaza. It has also massively escalated offensives against Palestinian resistance groups in the West Bank, causing hundreds of deaths. Property demolitions have doubled. Settler violence has increased by nearly 50%.

Israel’s declared motive for its offensives policy is to suppress expected terrorist attacks. However, the continued settlement expansion makes it clear that much of its motive is to expand settlements under cover of the war on Gaza.

Settlement Expansion since 7 October 2023

60 new settlement outposts were established in 2024, doubling the number established in 2023, which was itself a very high year.

Dozens of roads, estimated to stretch tens of kilometres, have been paved to establish new outposts and seize additional lands.

More than 24,000 dunams were declared as “state land,” nearly half of the total area declared as state land since the Oslo Accords until now.

Plans for nearly 10,000 housing units in settlements were promoted in 2024, the third highest number on record.

The cabinet approved the establishment of 5 new settlements, all illegal outposts intended to become official settlements.

The Supreme Planning Council approved plans to legalise three outposts as “neighbourhoods” of existing settlements. 70 illegal outposts were recognized as eligible for governmental funding and infrastructure, including constructing public buildings connected to water, electricity and other services.

Violence since 7 October 2023

More than 800 Palestinians have been killed – more than four times the number killed in the first nine months of 2023. Conversely, the 7,000 injured is less than the nearly 9,000 injured in the first nine months of 2023. The disparity between the huge increase in killing and the slight decrease in wounding is no doubt because, for the first time since the height of the Second Intifada in 2002, Israel has been using jet fighters and helicopters in its attacks on the West Bank.

The numbers of Israelis killed and injured by Palestinians has remained roughly constant at about 25 and 160 respectively.

Israeli authorities destroyed, demolished, confiscated, or forced the demolition of nearly 2,200 Palestinian structures across the West Bank. Nearly 5,400 Palestinians were displaced – nearly four times the number displaced during the first nine months of 2023.

Israeli settlers perpetrated nearly 1,900 attacks against Palestinians, displacing nearly 1,800 of them from their homes. That is more than four times the number displaced during the first nine months of 2023. The Israeli authorities take little action to prevent these attacks or to apprehend the perpetrators.

6 February 2025