Details of the Israeli Plan to Swallow the West Bank

The Israeli occupation continues its systematic policy aimed at swallowing the West Bank and confining Palestinians to restricted areas. This policy has intensified since October 7, 2023, with increased violations, including settler attacks on cities and villages. The construction of new roads, the legalization of settlement outposts, the building of new settlement housing units, and the erection of a border wall with Jordan coupled with increased military presence signal a grave reality threatening the Palestinians there.

For years, Israeli extremists have advocated for the annexation of the West Bank and the expulsion of its residents. Now, with their presence in the government coalition, they have taken several steps to solidify this reality.

These calls align with the desires of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has expressed his wish on multiple occasions. Since October 7, the number of settlement outposts and actions to bite off area (C) for Israelis have increased.

Sunna Files Website highlights the major Israeli measures since October 7, 2023, aimed at annexing the West Bank and displacing its residents.

How many Palestinians are in the West Bank, and where are they located? According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the Palestinian population in the West Bank reaches 3.28 million as of mid-2024.

The West Bank comprises about 21% of historic Palestine’s area, spanning approximately 5,660 square kilometers and includes 11 governorates: Hebron, Ramallah and Al-Bireh, Bethlehem, Nablus, Jericho, Jenin, Tubas and Northern Valleys, Jerusalem, Tulkarm, Salfit, and Qalqilya.

Hebron is the largest governorate in terms of area, followed by Ramallah and Al-Bireh, while the smallest are Qalqilya, Salfit, and Tulkarm.

The West Bank houses 428 villages, while the number of village councils does not exceed 112.

The Oslo Accords’ West Bank divisions According to the Oslo Accords, West Bank territories were divided into areas under Palestinian sovereignty, joint Palestinian-Israeli sovereignty, and direct Israeli security sovereignty.

Israel retains control over borders, external security, Jerusalem, and the settlements, as well as “comprehensive security responsibility for Israelis” in the Bank, with the three areas being:

Area “A”

Represents 17.5% of the West Bank area, fully under Palestinian civil and security control, comprising the Palestinian city centers. Area “B”: Represents 18.5% of the West Bank area, forming the rural extension of cities, under Palestinian civil administration for health, education, and economic management but under Israeli security control. However, in reality, there has been no distinction between Areas “A” and “B,” which represent 36% of the area and are home to about 92% of the Palestinians, where Area (A) has, in practice, come under Israeli security control.

Area “C”

Represents 60% of the West Bank area, which according to the Oslo Accords, was to be handed over to Palestinian authority by 1999. However, Israel retained full control following stalled final status negotiations, witnessing the largest demolition and displacement operations, essentially becoming a “quasi-state” for settlers. Meanwhile, other areas constituting 4% of the area have been confiscated by Israel as nature reserves and parts of occupied Jerusalem in 1967, and other areas in Hebron governorate in the southern sector.

How many settlers are in the West Bank? Approximately 726,000 Israeli settlers live in more than 176 settlements, including East Jerusalem, according to a “Settlement Council” report at the beginning of 2024.

According to the “Settlement Council,” the settler population has increased by 142,938 settlers over the past decade, an increase of 38%.

The proportion of ultra-Orthodox Jews in the West Bank is about 37%, those affiliated with “Religious Zionism” also at 37%, and secular Jews at 26%.

The West Bank in Zionist doctrine According to Jewish doctrine, the entire history of the state was in the West Bank, where the ancient state of “Israel” and later the divided states of “Judea” and “Samaria” were established.

The Jewish doctrine claims that what is called the “Kingdom of Samaria” was established in the northern West Bank, with its capital then at “Shechem” (Nablus), while the “Kingdom of Judea” was established in the south, with Jerusalem as its capital.

According to Torah interpretations by religious Zionist Jews, the West Bank must remain under Israeli control as it brings closer the return of the Messiah (Jewish savior).

According to Jewish rabbinical (religious leaders) fatwas, relinquishing areas of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria, as they call it) is religiously forbidden, where Eliezer Melamed, a clergy member affiliated with Religious Zionism, stated that leaving the West Bank outside Israeli control is prohibited by Jewish law.

The Swallowing of the West Bank under Netanyahu’s Coalition since October 7, 2023? Settlement outposts According to a new analysis by the “BBC” network, the number of settlement outposts in the West Bank has reached 196, with 29 created last year, more than any previous year.

The difference between settlements and outposts is that the former are illegal under international law but legal under Israeli law, while the outposts are illegal under Israeli law as well, as they are built without permits from the Israeli government.

According to a report by the “Peace Now” organization, at least 43 new settlement outposts were established during the war year, most agricultural, focusing on land appropriation and systematic expulsion of Palestinians in Area (C).

Data from the Palestinian Authority’s Anti-Wall and Settlement Commission indicate that the new Israeli measures in the war year accelerated all plans and policies, whether settlement construction, land confiscation, or demolition of Palestinian buildings.

The data shows that 52,000 dunams (a dunam equals 1,000 square meters) were seized during the war year, and 12 buffer zones were established around the colonies, while Israeli planning authorities studied 182 structural plans to build a total of 23,267 settlement units over an area of 14,000 dunams, with 6,300 units approved.

The Israeli government has decided to establish 5 new settlements, originally illegal outposts, now recognized as settlements by the government.

Additionally, 70 illegal outposts have been recognized as eligible for funding and infrastructure, where Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered funding to start, including public buildings, water, and electricity connections, among other facilities.

The number of new recognized outposts during the war year is unprecedented, for example, from 1996 until early 2023, about 7 outposts were established annually on average.

The distribution of outposts after October 7, 2023, is as follows: Hebron governorate (8 outposts), Ramallah (6 outposts), Bethlehem (4 outposts), and 3 other outposts in Nablus and the rest of the governorates.

The Anti-Wall and Settlement Commission noted that the state of occupation decided to legalize (legitimize) 11 settlement outposts and convert them into colonies or settlement neighborhoods affiliated with existing colonies, and submitted a total of 9 other outposts for legalization procedures.

The Supreme Israeli Planning Council approved plans for building 8,681 housing units in settlements in the West Bank.

A plan was announced to establish a new settlement pocket in Hebron, comprising 234 housing units.

24,193 dunams were declared “state lands” in Area (C), equivalent to half of the total land declared as state land since the Oslo Accords (1993) until now.

New roads and military gates During the war year, the Israeli occupation built more unlicensed new roads, estimated at tens of kilometers in total length, to facilitate the establishment of new settlement outposts and control additional lands.

The Settlement Monitoring Team of the “Peace Now” movement documented at least nine new unlicensed roads paved since the beginning of the war.

Creating new roads facilitates the seizure of a large area, hindering or preventing Palestinians from accessing their nearby lands.

Conversely, the Israeli occupation has significantly and noticeably increased its policy of besieging and isolating cities and towns in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem.

According to statistics from the Anti-Wall and Settlement Commission, the state of occupation installs 872 barriers and military gates in the West Bank, 145 of which were placed after October 7, 2023.

Data indicate that hundreds of entrances and exits in the three areas of the West Bank remain closed, while main roads in Area (A) have been converted into roads exclusively for settlers.

Arbitrary measures against Palestinians Among the most notable measures arbitrarily targeting Palestinians in the West Bank:

Restricting access to agricultural lands, as the occupation army and settlers prevent Palestinians from cultivating large areas around the settlements. The High Planning Council has not approved any plans for building residential housing for Palestinians in Area (C). The Israeli occupation intensified the demolition of buildings in Area (C), where the total reached 901 buildings in one year, citing lack of building permits as a reason. In Areas (A) and (B), Israeli demolition operations significantly increased during military operations, under so-called (security demolition orders). The occupation government has executive powers over parts of Area (B), which are supposed to be under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, based on this, the Central Area commander in the Israeli army issued demolition authority orders for Palestinian homes in the area known as “the agreed reserve”. Increased budget for the Settlement Ministry

The Israeli government injects large amounts of its budget to support settlement in the West Bank, but it doubled it during the war year, adding about 302 million shekels, according to the “Peace Now” organization.

7 billion shekels were also allocated for roads in the settlements, and according to Smotrich, the Finance Ministry reached an agreement with the Ministry of Transport on a five-year plan worth 7 billion shekels for internal roads between the settlements.

409 million shekels were allocated for various projects in the settlements, in addition to allocating 75 million shekels for “illegal” outposts, including about 39 million shekels for “illegal” grazing farms, some of which participate in settler violence.

This is the first time the Israeli government has directly funded “illegal” outposts through government ministries.

The powers related to the settlements were transferred from the Israeli army to a civilian officer under Smotrich’s supervision, appointing a settler in the position known as “the civil deputy” to the head of the civil administration, making him the governor of the settlements.

Settler violence According to data from the Anti-Wall and Settlement Commission, settlers protected by the Israeli army carried out thousands of attacks in the West Bank since the start of the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, leading to the displacement of 28 Palestinian Bedouin communities.

Settlers carried out 1,490 attacks in various areas of the occupied West Bank during October 2023, according to the Anti-Wall and Settlement Commission.

Settler attacks were not limited to Palestinian villages; they also reached the heart of cities in the West Bank, attacking the industrial area of Al-Bireh, classified within Area (A).

The Israeli army appointed hundreds of settlers in so-called “Regional Defense Brigades” in the West Bank, where they served within the settlements themselves, some participating in the systematic expulsion of Palestinians in the area.

Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Brigade In April 2024, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir established a special police unit in the West Bank, operating under the supervision of the “Shai” (West Bank) police unit and coordinating with the Population and Immigration Authority to accelerate arrest and deportation operations.

Magazine (+972) reported from volunteers sympathetic to Palestinians that they were subjected to threatening interrogations, false accusations, and rapid deportation orders by the police unit formed by Ben-Gvir.

Tightening on the Jordan Valley and deploying forces on the border with Jordan The Jordan Valley area falls within the “Jericho and the Jordan Valley” governorate, and according to the Oslo Accords divisions, the largest part of it lies within Area (C).

The Jordan Valley, east of the West Bank, forms the West Bank’s food basket, supplying the Palestinian market with about 60% of vegetables and fruits, also containing about 50% of Palestinian groundwater sources; thus, it is considered the second largest groundwater reservoir in the West Bank.

To consolidate Israeli control over the area, the occupation has pursued a policy of isolating the area, forming the eastern border of the West Bank, since 1967.

More settlements and new roads were built, extending from the “Mekhola” settlement in the northern Jordan Valley to the “Metsoyeh Shalem” settlement west of the Dead Sea within the Hebron governorate.

Successive Israeli governments have encouraged Israeli settlers to live in the eastern isolation area, where the area of agricultural lands seized by settlers in the eastern isolation area exceeds 64,000 dunams.

Today, the area, which constitutes about 30% of the total area of the West Bank, has 37 Israeli settlements built on an area of 40,000 dunams.

The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories reports that “Israel prevents Palestinians from using about 85% of the area of the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea, exploiting this area for its needs.”

Since 1967, the occupation has established about 30 Israeli military sites, preventing Palestinians in the surrounding areas from accessing their lands, with the area where the camps and training areas for the army were established estimated at 3,962 dunams.

In this context, the Palestinian News Agency “WAFA” reports that the area of lands controlled by the settlements is about 7,863 dunams, while the area controlled by the settlement outposts is about 267 dunams.

Days ago, the occupation government announced the formation of a new military brigade on the border with Jordan, intersecting with the West Bank by 97 kilometers, out of a total of 335 kilometers along the Palestinian-Jordanian border.

The Israeli government has repeatedly announced the start of building a wall with Jordan to prevent what it claimed were attempts to smuggle weapons and fighters from the kingdom into the West Bank, reviving a project proposed years ago.

Building the wall and controlling security in the eastern area aligns with the occupation’s policy of gradually entrenching the status quo in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, aiming for annexation and confining Palestinians to the smallest possible area of the West Bank lands.