Israel and Palestine: What’s happened in the West Bank since October 2023?

World attention has been focussed on Gaza since 7 October 2023, where Israel’s two-year onslaught has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians.

Israel declared war on the besieged enclave hours after Hamas-led attacks in the south of the country killed an estimated 1,200 people, most of whom were Israeli. 

Less attention has been paid to the West Bank, the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

But much was happening in the months leading up to 7 October, and has continued to happen since then.

Attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers, who occupy the West Bank in defiance of international law, have surged during the past two years.

Israeli forces have launched nearly 7,500 raids of Palestinian towns and villages across the West Bank in 2025 so far, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha).

Here, Middle East Eye gets you up to speed with an overview of what’s been happening in the West Bank.

Where is the West Bank?

The West Bank is a landlocked area of 5,665 sqkm on the west bank of the River Jordan, adjacent to eastern Israel.

It is 15 times the size of Gaza, with a population of around three million Palestinians, including more than 900,000 refugees. An estimated 700,000 Israeli settlers also live in illegal settlements. 

The West Bank's 19 refugee camps are home to almost a million people, most of whom are the descendants of those displaced by the 1948 Palestinian Nakba and subsequent wars.

What was the West Bank like before 7 October?

Following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Israel took control of Palestinian territory, including the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, as well as Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Syria’s Golan Heights.

Since the 1993 Oslo Accords, territory in the West Bank has been split into three zones, Areas A, B and C:

Area A (21 percent of the land): Full Palestinian Authority (PA) administrative and security control, including  Ramallah, Nablus and Jenin. Along with Area B, it is home to the West Bank's 3.1 million Palestinians.

Area B (18 percent of the land): Partial PA administrative control, while Israeli security controls Palestinian villages and rural areas.

Area C (61 percent of the land): Full Israeli administrative and security control, including borders, external security, Jerusalem and settlements.

The West Bank is peppered with hundreds of administrative enclaves, creating a maze of Israeli military checkpoints and traffic jams that dominate Palestinian daily life and separate West Bank residents from other Palestinians (the Ocha map of access restrictions can also be seen here).

Conditions are poor in the West Bank’s refugee camps due to overcrowding and Israeli-imposed land and aid restrictions. 

In the Balata refugee camp, the West Bank’s largest by population, more than 33,000 people live in an area of around a quarter of a square kilometre – a population density nearly 50 times that of London. 

The West Bank is administered by the Palestinian Authority (PA), created by the 1993 Oslo Accords. The largest party in the authority is Fatah, led by Mahmoud Abbas, who has served as president of Palestine since 2005 and has not called elections since then, citing disputes with Israel over voting in East Jerusalem.

Despite the area designations, in reality, Israel controls the West Bank, with its army operating largely unchecked: daily raids are a longstanding feature of Palestinian life.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government has authorised around 700,000 Israelis to live in 150 settlements. There are also around 200 further unauthorised settler outposts (the Peace Now map of settlements can also be seen here).

A ruling by the International Court of Justice in 2024 said that both types of Israeli settlements are unlawful under international law.

Attacks by Israeli settlers are commonplace and usually met with impunity from Israeli security forces.

Tensions in the West Bank were high in the year leading up to October 2023. 

In the 12 months before the Hamas-led attack, 259 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military and settlers – more than five times as many as were killed in Gaza during the same period. Four Israelis were also killed. 

In one incident in February 2023, settlers wounded 400 Palestinians and destroyed 35 homes.

Many feared an outbreak of catastrophic violence within the territory, including then-CIA director William Burns. 

Discussing the West Bank on 2 February 2023, Burns said: “I was a senior US diplomat 20 years ago during the Second Intifada, and I’m concerned - as are my colleagues in the intelligence community - that a lot of what we’re seeing today has a very unhappy resemblance to some of those realities that we saw then too.”

How has the West Bank reacted to events in Gaza?

Israel’s war in Gaza sparked outrage and demonstrations among Palestinians in the West Bank.

The PA violently clamped down on protests and banned Qatar-backed Al Jazeera TV, which it accuses of publishing “inciting material”.

Palestinians also organised general strikes in January 2024 and April 2025, shutting shops, schools and businesses.

While West Bank support for Hamas and the 7 October attacks has declined in recent months, it still exceeds that for Fatah, according to Palestinian pollsters.

The same polls show overwhelming support for Abbas's resignation.

What has Israel done recently in the West Bank?

Since 7 October 2023, Israel has increased its already huge military presence in the territory. 

Military raids on Palestinian communities have increased, with the PA often serving as an enforcer. Most are aimed at refugee camps, which Israel says are militant strongholds posing a security threat. 

The Israeli military has said that it only targets militants. But since 7 October, human rights groups have highlighted the arbitrary arrest and killing of unarmed civilians, including the torture of Palestinian healthcare workers. 

Human Rights Watch reported in May 2024: “According to the United Nations, Israeli security forces killed more than twice the number of Palestinians in the West Bank in 2023 than in any year since systematic data collection began in 2005, and the rate of killings was even higher during the first quarter of 2024.”

After a major Israeli offensive in August 2024, the PA restarted its campaign against the Palestinian anti-occupation fighters at the Jenin refugee camp in December 2024.

PA security forces fought street battles with the fighters, raiding hospitals and shooting at civilians.

The PA said the campaign involved “pursuing outlaws” to address “security chaos”.

 In January 2025, PA security forces withdrew from Jenin. The Israeli military then launched “Operation Iron Wall” to seize control of the Jenin, Tulkarm, Nur Shams and Far’a refugee camps in the West Bank. 

On 19 January, a ceasefire was agreed in Gaza. It officially lasted 42 days before Israel restarted bombing the enclave.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, the Israeli military began a major bombing offensive on the camps, followed by a ground assault. 

The campaign, the largest Israeli military assault on the West Bank since the Second Intifada of 2000-2005, has forced more than 40,000 Palestinians to leave their homes, according to the United Nations. 

Nine months later, more than 32,ooo Palestinians remain displaced according to Unrwa – the largest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. 

Throughout 2025, the Israeli military has continued to expel Palestinians from their residences. In June 2025, for example, Palestinian homes across Hebron, Jenin, Ramallah and Qalqilya were turned into barracks to shelter Israeli troops from Iranian missile strikes.

What have settlers done in the West Bank?

Violent attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers have also increased since 7 October 2023.

Ocha registered 1,400 instances of settler violence in 2024 alone, the highest number of annual incidents since records began. 

Twelve percent of the 4,700 Palestinians displaced that year in the West Bank said it was due to settler violence, according to Ocha.

Many of those forced out are from rural communities that have lived in the countryside around surrounding Palestinian towns and villages for centuries.

Others have been displaced by the 1,700-plus demolitions of Palestinian-owned buildings by Israeli contractors in 2024 to allow the building of settlements - the highest since UN records began.

Settler incursions have not slowed in 2025. So far this year, Ocha has logged more than 1,000 cases of settler violence and 1,395 demolitions.

Settler violence covered by Middle East Eye has included an overnight raid on al-Mu’arrajat East by armed Israeli settlers in July 2025, when 30 Palestinian families were forced from their homes. 

Later that month, Israeli settlers forced two more Palestinian families to flee from al-Miteh after slaughtering dozens of sheep and stealing 350 others. 

In both instances, as is common across the West Bank, Israeli law enforcement was slow to respond and offered little assistance to Palestinians, or else supported settlers.

In one incident in Ramallah in June 2025, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians after settlers set fire to Palestinian houses and vehicles. 

How many Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank?

According to Ocha’s latest report, 996 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli military and settler attacks between 7 October 2023 and 22 September 2025. Of these, 212 were children.

In 2025 alone, 190 Palestinians, including 39 children, have been killed by Israelis in the West Bank.  

Of these, at least 19 were killed by Israeli settlers, with 965 killed by the Israeli military, according to Ocha. 

How will the E1 Plan affect the West Bank?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has frequently expressed support for expanding West Bank settlements. On 11 September, he said that “there will be no Palestinian state, this place belongs to us”.

The political will in Israel to make his vision a reality has grown since October 2023. While large sections of Israeli society have backed annexation for decades, support has rapidly increased during the last two years.

In July, the Knesset passed a non-binding motion to annex the West Bank with cross-party support. 

The following month, Israel approved the E1 Settlement Plan, a decades-old project to build over 3,400 housing units for Israeli settlements, connecting occupied East Jerusalem with existing settlements in Maale Adumim. 

The plan defies international law that sets out the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty, and would usher in more Israeli land-grabs, demolitions and settlements in Palestinian rural communities.

On 13 August, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, an ally of Netanyahu and himself a settler, said: “Approval of construction plans in E1 buries the idea of a Palestinian state and continues the many steps we are taking on the ground as part of the de facto sovereignty plan.”

He then went further on 30 August, proposing the absorption of 82 percent of the West Bank into Israel. 

Only major Palestinian cities such as Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah would remain outside of full Israeli control. 

Smotrich said that the PA would be dismantled under the plan, “not with slogans, but with actions”.

Netanyahu said in August 2025 that he “very much” identified with the vision of “Greater Israel”, which covers Palestine as well as parts of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. 

What have other countries said about the West Bank?

Neighbouring Arab states have condemned Netanyahu’s comments about a possible “Greater Israel”.

In a joint statement on 15 August, a coalition of 31 Arab League and Muslim-majority states said: “These statements represent a grave disregard for, and a blatant and dangerous violation of, the rules of international law and the foundations of stable international relations.”

It also said that the statements were a direct threat to the security and sovereignty of Arab states, as well as regional and international peace and security.

Regional diplomatic responses to Israeli incursions from neighbouring Jordan and Egypt have, however, long been weak.

How has the US responded?

Having moved the US embassy to Jerusalem in 2018 during his first term, Trump began his second by lifting sanctions on Israeli settlers imposed by the Biden administration. 

He has also staffed his administration with supporters of West Bank annexation, including US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.

“I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee told CNN in 2017.

“There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It's Judea and Samaria. There's no such thing as a settlement. They're communities, they're neighbourhoods, they're cities. There's no such thing as an occupation.”

When settlers killed Palestinian-American Saif al-Din Muslalat, 20, in July, Huckabee condemned the killing, but made no serious attempt to seek justice or restore sanctions on settlers. 

But Trump reassured Muslim leaders at a closed-door UN meeting on 24 September that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. 

“ I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope. I will not allow. It’s not gonna happen,” he also told media at the UN on 26 September. 

What about international organisations?

Israel’s ratification of the E1 Settlement Plan in August was criticised by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

A spokesperson said: “Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are a violation of international law and run directly counter to United Nations resolutions. The advancement of this project is an existential threat to the two-State solution.”

On 29 September, UN peacemakers advised the UN Security Council that they were still alarmed about the proposal, and that it could jeopardise the UNSC’s commitment to keeping Palestinian civilians safe. 

Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Office has named 158 businesses from 11 countries complicit in illegal settlement activities. 

Most of the listed companies are based in Israel, but others, including travel companies Expedia and Airbnb, conglomerate Fosun International, tech company Motorola Solutions, real estate firm Metrontario Investments, and heavy machinery supplier JC Bamford are located in Europe, China and North America.

International human rights NGOs, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have criticised the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and plans for further annexation. 

Amnesty said in a statement on 21 August: “The Israeli civil administration’s approval of the E1 settlement plan …  is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and a dangerous step towards formal annexation”.