Israel has committed more than 38,000 human rights violations in the occupied West Bank since 7 October 2023

According to a new report from the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC), Israel has committed more than 38,000 human rights and legal violations in the occupied West Bank since 7 October 2023.

These 38,359 violations were committed by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and illegal colonial settlers against Palestinian citizens and their property.

Out of these, 31,205 incidents were attributed to the army, while settlers carried out 7,154 attacks, which led to the killing of 33 Palestinians. The report also revealed that settlers established an unprecedented 114 new settlement outposts during this same period, which triggered the forced displacement of 33 Palestinian Bedouin communities. These communities comprised of 455 families and a total of 2,853 people, who were forced to flee their homes.

Palestinian West Bank land being reclassified so the Israeli occupation can steal it

Since October 2023, Israel has taken control of around 5,500 hectares of Palestinian land, including large areas reclassified as ‘nature reserves’ and ‘state land’.

In addition, about 175 hectares were confiscated through the use of more than 100 military orders for the construction of security infrastructure and 25 buffer zones which were established around the illegal settlements, mainly in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli occupation’s apartheid system ensures the illegal settlers living in these settlements have everything at their disposal, even their own roads, which Palestinians are not permitted to use. Efforts have now intensified, to fragment Palestinian land and isolate communities, by expanding the network of these settler only roads, to connect the various settlements.

Settlement expansion at an unprecedented rate

Israeli occupation authorities reviewed 355 planning proposals for more than 37,000 new settlement units on over 3,800 hectares in the occupied West Bank and elsewhere. Nearly half have been approved, with the remainder pending. Jerusalem recorded the highest concentration of these plans with 148.

In the past two years, 11 existing outposts have been legalised, and almost 70 have received infrastructure support to strengthen settler hold over Palestinian land. Outposts often start off as nothing more than a caravan placed on Palestinian land by a settler, and are often accompanied by livestock grazing, fencing, and infrastructure that encroach on Palestinian territory.

Settlers use outposts strategically to seize Palestinian lands by establishing a physical, very often violent, presence that gradually expands, displacing Palestinian herders and farmers. The outposts are backed by the IOF and government, and disrupt Palestinian access to their land and resources, leading to forced displacement and land confiscation.

Settler violence, harassment, and theft of resources like water from Palestinian communities are common tactics used to enforce control and drive Palestinians out, facilitating the expansion of these outposts into larger settlements.

Violence and land theft used to displace Palestinians from their land

Since October 2023, military and settler actions have caused nearly 770 fires in the occupied West Bank, over 200 of which damaged private property while the rest destroyed farmland. These incidents damaged more than 48,000 trees. The violence and land seizures have displaced entire Bedouin communities, uprooting thousands of people from their homes.

The number of checkpoints and barriers in the occupied West Bank, along main routes and at the entrances and exits of villages and towns-which restrict movement of people and goods and isolate communities- now stands at 916, including more than 240 new gates installed since October 2024.

Israeli authorities carried out more than 1,000 demolitions, destroying almost 3,680 Palestinian structures, including over 1,200 inhabited homes and hundreds of agricultural and commercial facilities, while a further 1,670 demolition orders were issued targeting buildings across the West Bank.

CWRC: West Bank a testing ground for Israel’s colonial policies

In a recent press conference, Muayyad Shaaban, Head of CWRC, said the occupied Palestinian territories have become a testing ground for new colonial policies over the past two years. He accused the Israeli occupation of deploying policies that combine violence, territorial control, and legal measures to empower settlers while denying Palestinians basic rights such as housing, movement, and dignity.

Featured image via the Canary