The West Bank is home to 2.7 million Palestinians and is considered the cornerstone of any Palestinian state and the center of the conflict in the coming phase. However, many believe that Israel has effectively and clearly annexed the West Bank, and all that remains is for it to officially announce this annexation. With each passing day, new steps and decisions are taken to consolidate the annexation of the West Bank through escalating settler violence and attacks and through new decisions by the Israeli government to build new settlement units. The latest of these decisions was Israel's approval of the establishment of 19 new settlements.

Even at the official level, in a blatant challenge to international law and U.N. resolutions affirming the illegality of settlements, the Israeli Knesset voted in a preliminary reading on a bill to annex the West Bank as well as the Ma'ale Adumim settlement east of Jerusalem. The attempt to legitimize this process is perhaps one of the most important indicators of the start of a major expansionist settlement phase to integrate these areas directly into the State of Israel.

Indicators of settlement expansion in the last year have reached their highest level since 2017, with more than 47,000 settlement units approved, compared to 26,000 settlement units in 2024. The average number of settlements between 2017 and 2022 was around 12,000 settlement units per year, indicating a quantitative and qualitative increase in settlement operations in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The primary goal of settlement is to prevent the establishment of any Palestinian state in the West Bank. In this context, the Israeli government has built tens of thousands of units in existing settlements and 22 new settlements, in addition to the E1 project, which connects the Ma'ale Adumim settlement to Jerusalem, separates the north from the south, and effectively eliminates any continuity in the geography of the Palestinian state in the West Bank.

One of the most notable steps taken in this context is the establishment of settlements in areas that were evacuated in 2005 under a withdrawal plan overseen at the time by former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, which saw the withdrawal of 21 Israeli settlements in Gaza and four settlements in the West Bank. It is clear that the West Bank has been fragmented through settlement, Palestinian cities and towns have been isolated from each other, and the demolition of homes and confiscation of land have intensified in more than one area of the West Bank.

Settler violence

The situation is not limited to increased illegal construction. Israeli settlers, supported by the Israeli army, have increased their attacks on Palestinian civilians, resulting in the deaths of dozens of Palestinians. Israeli settlers carry out no fewer than 200 attacks on Palestinians every month. These attacks increase every year, especially during the olive harvest season. Nearly 800 attacks by settlers on Palestinians were recorded in the first half of 2025, which is 13% higher than the same period in 2024. The Israeli occupation and settlers have killed 42 children in the West Bank since November 2025 alone.

More than 3,200 Palestinians have been displaced due to settler violence and restrictions on Palestinian movement in the last two years alone. Following settler violence, the occupation government issued demolition orders for Palestinian homes. Palestinian homes in the southern hills of Hebron are being demolished to facilitate settlement, and 11 homes were demolished in the Palestinian Bedouin community of Um al-Kheir in October 2025, threatening the survival of 35 families living there. The situation in Um al-Kheir is an example of a growing wave of measures aimed at consolidating the annexation of the West Bank and Area C. It is therefore clear that settler violence is a tool for the forced displacement of thousands of Palestinians from their rural communities, particularly in the Jordan Valley.

U.S. support

Most countries consider Israeli settlements in the areas occupied in 1967 to be illegal, and the U.N. Security Council has called on Israel in numerous resolutions to halt all settlement activity. However, the opposite has happened, with settlement construction increasing, particularly under the extreme right-wing coalition government.

Unfortunately, this expansion enjoys strong U.S. support.

The expansion of settlements in the West Bank is based on U.S. support that encourages and even defends it. Perhaps the most recent example was U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee's defense of the establishment of 19 new settlements in the West Bank, asserting that there was no need for any reaction to this matter and confirming that the occupation government had issued 35 permits for the construction of settlements since President Donald Trump took office. Huckabee argues that these settlements are not in Palestinian Authority areas but in Area C, and he considers this to be not a violation of the law.

For those who are unaware, the West Bank was divided into three areas under the 1993 Oslo Accords: Area A is under Palestinian security and civil control, Area B is under Israeli security control and Palestinian administrative control and Area C, which Huckabee refers to, is under Israeli administrative and security control and constitutes 60% of the West Bank.

The road infrastructure and checkpoints are also used to serve the settlement system and engineer the space of control, within a colonial reality that aims to annex most of the West Bank officially and de facto. Therefore, there must be real international pressure on the Israeli occupation to protect Palestinian civilians and prevent the Israeli occupation from implementing its colonial plans, which rely on the forced displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank through settlement and settler violence.