Latest update March 26th, 2026 7:55 AM
Israel’s push to displace thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank
(AL-JAZEERA) In the occupied West Bank, much like in the Gaza Strip, Israeli policy is forcing thousands of Palestinians from their homes, in stark defiance of international law.
A report published last week by Human Rights Watch (HRW) highlighted the expulsion of 32,000 Palestinians from their homes in just three refugee camps this year. HRW said that the Israeli operation in the Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem refugee camps, which began in January, led to the biggest mass displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967.
An Israeli settler gestures as he argues with a Palestinian farmer (not pictured), during olive harvesting in Silwad, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, October 29, 2025 [Mohammed Torokman/Reuters]
In Area C, the part of the occupied West Bank without even symbolic Palestinian administrative control, the United Nations reported earlier in November that more than 1,000 Palestinians were displaced when Israel demolished their homes, with a further 500 people made homeless in occupied East Jerusalem. Israel cited a lack of permits for the demolitions, but building permits are notoriously hard to obtain for Palestinians in those areas.
Israel has so far faced few consequences for its actions in the occupied West Bank, even as reports from human rights organisations call for senior Israeli military and political officials to be investigated for the actions of Israeli forces in the West Bank refugee camps, and the ongoing displacement of civilians.
“We are witnessing the total abandonment of Palestinian lives. Israel has already shown it is capable of far greater violence, as we are seeing in the Gaza Strip,” Israeli human rights group B’Tselem’s executive director Yuli Novak said on Friday. “The situation in the West Bank is deteriorating by the day and will only worsen, because there is no internal or external mechanism to restrain Israel or stop its ongoing policy of ethnic cleansing. The international community must put an end to Israel’s impunity and hold those responsible for crimes against the Palestinian people to account.”
What are Israel’s aims for the occupied West Bank?
According to many senior Israeli government figures, the aim is to annex the West Bank.
In October, Israel’s parliament granted preliminary approval for a bill that would extend Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, an action widely regarded as a flagrant breach of international law.
Israel’s hardline finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich – who lives in an illegal settlement – has been clear in his intentions towards the occupied West Bank.
Speaking at a meeting of his Religious Zionism party last year, Smotrich told colleagues that he was “establish[ing] facts on the ground in order to make Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] an integral part of the state of Israel”.
“We will establish sovereignty … first on the ground, and then, through legislation. I intend to legalise the young settlements [illegal outposts],” the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Smotrich saying, “My life’s mission is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
More than 700,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In August, Smotrich announced the creation of a new “E1″ settlement involving the creation of 3,000 homes separating occupied East Jerusalem from the West Bank as part of a project the finance minister said would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”
Discover more from Kaieteur News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Sir. Ronald Sanders
The GHK Lall Column
Weekend Cartoon
