How Israeli raids, settler violence and annexation plans are driving the West Bank toward crisis

Arab News

20 hours ago

LONDON: While global attention remains focused on the war in Gaza, the occupied West Bank has been sliding deeper into crisis, largely out of sight. Israeli military raids and settler violence against Palestinians have escalated sharply, intensifying tensions across the territory.
The UN Human Rights Office has warned of growing settler violence 'with the acquiescence, support, and in some cases participation of Israeli forces.'
In a July 30 statement, the UN agency described 'a pattern of the use of unnecessary and disproportionate force that resulted in the unlawful killing and injury of Palestinians' in the West Bank.
The report further alleged that Israeli authorities are pursuing a wider strategy of displacement and annexation — claims the government rejects, insisting instead that its actions are a response to security threats posed by Palestinian militants.
'State policy and legislative actions appear aimed at emptying certain areas of the West Bank of the Palestinian population, advancing the settlement enterprise, and consolidating the annexation' of large parts of the territory, the statement added.
That warning was followed almost immediately by a significant political development, as Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Defense Minister Israel Katz publicly declared that the current moment offered an opportunity to annex the West Bank — a move long opposed by much of the international community.
'Ministers Katz and Levin have been working for many years to implement Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,' their offices said in a joint statement on July 31, using the biblical name for the West Bank. 'At this very moment, there is a moment of opportunity that must not be missed.'
The statement did not explain why now is the right opportunity, but it came on the heels of recent announcements by Western governments, including France and the UK, that they are prepared to recognize a Palestinian state.
Just two days earlier, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that the UK would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September unless Israel moved to end the crisis in Gaza, commit to a ceasefire, and revive a two-state solution.
'There is an understandable focus on Gaza given the genocide that is going on, the horrific amount of destruction, loss of life, the starvation of a civilian population,' Chris Doyle, director of the London-based Council for Arab-British Understanding, told Arab News.
'Of course, that is far, far worse than anything that is currently happening in the West Bank.' But, he warned, the difference in scale does not diminish the danger.
'I think what is scary about the West Bank is that many Palestinians there feel that they are next — that what has happened in Gaza will be happening to them.'
That fear is not unfounded.
'We've already seen an uptick in Israeli military operations, particularly in the north of the West Bank, inside refugee camps,' said Doyle.
'We've seen demolitions at record levels, record levels of settler violence, all helped by the Israeli military, and the forced displacement of so many communities.'
He added that ultra-nationalist elements within the Israeli government, 'particularly those who are really engaged with the ultra-nationalist settler movement,' are 'doing everything they can to exploit the situation in Gaza to push forward with their plans in the West Bank.'
That concern is echoed by Israeli rights group B'Tselem, which warned in July of 'clear and imminent danger that the genocide will not remain confined to Gaza.'
In its report, titled 'Our Genocide,' B'Tselem warned that the assault on Gaza is inseparable from escalating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and within Israel.
Indeed, violence in the West Bank has spiked since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza, and escalated further after Israel launched Operation Iron Wall on Jan. 21, which the Israeli government says is aimed at tackling militant groups in the territory's north.
International monitors, including the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Human Rights Watch, say the campaign has become increasingly indiscriminate, killing numerous noncombatants, including children.
Save the Children reports at least 224 children were killed by Israeli forces or settlers between January 2023 and early 2025. OCHA says that from Oct. 7, 2023, to mid-July 2025, some 968 Palestinians — including 204 children — were killed in the West Bank.
Civilians killed during this period include foreign nationals, such as Palestinian-American Khamis Al-Ayyad, whose family is seeking an investigation into his death in a settler attack on July 31.
UN figures show around 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced — the largest such movement since the 1967 war — most of them from three refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem.
Settler violence and military-imposed access restrictions have uprooted more than 2,200 more.
House demolitions are also climbing. A new directive by the Israeli Civil Administration allows the military to raze Palestinian structures and expel around 1,200 residents from long-inhabited areas.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned such actions could constitute 'forcible transfer, which is a war crime.'
The UN agency said in late June that such actions 'could also amount to a crime against humanity if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.'
Israel says demolitions target unpermitted buildings, though Palestinians and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs note that such permits are nearly impossible to obtain.
In June, the UN recorded the highest monthly injury toll from settler attacks in over 20 years. OHCHR counted 757 such attacks in the first seven months of 2025 — a 13 percent rise compared to the same period last year.
UN General Assembly President Philemon Yang called these developments 'a critical moment in the long history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.'
On July 28, he warned that 'while the situation in Gaza is dramatic, we must not lose sight of the deeply concerning and equally urgent situation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.'
Indeed, on Aug. 6, the Israeli government discussed building thousands of new housing units in the E1 area, east of occupied East Jerusalem. The project would link the Ma'ale Adumim settlement to Jerusalem, effectively bisecting the West Bank and isolating Palestinian communities.
'Not only would implementing the E1 doomsday settlement project split the West Bank into north and south, but also cement the separation of Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, as well as displacing around 12,500 Palestinians,' said Doyle.
'All of this, therefore, amounts to an extremely serious situation in the West Bank, which already exists under a regime of apartheid, where Israeli Jewish citizens of the State of Israel in settlements enjoy superior rights to Palestinians who are their neighbors.'
The E1 plan, stalled since 2021 under US and EU pressure, envisions building more than 3,000 homes to the east of Jerusalem and is widely seen as a death blow to a future contiguous Palestinian state.
In a joint statement in July, 31 Western nations, including the UK and France, announced their 'strong opposition' to the project, calling it 'a flagrant breach of international law' that would 'critically undermine the two-state solution.'
However, the international community should be doing far more, said Doyle.
He warned that the escalating situation in the West Bank 'does point to a fundamental failure of the international community, not just over the last 21-22 months, but actually over decades, to put an end to the settlement project — to reverse it.
'All of this, of course, has now been ordered by the International Court of Justice that says that Israel must withdraw from the settlements and pay reparations. And it is incumbent upon international actors to back that up and to take action to ensure that they are in no way complicit with Israel's regime of occupation.'
The ICJ ruled in July 2024 that Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem is illegal under international law. It found that Israeli settlements and use of natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territories are unlawful.
The court ordered Israel to end its occupation, dismantle settlements, provide full reparations to Palestinians, and facilitate the return of displaced people.
With the West Bank facing ever-increasing violence, mass displacement, and aid restrictions, the question looms: Will the world act to prevent it becoming another Gaza?