A campaign of ethnic cleansing and ‘tectonic’ new legal measures are killing the two-state solution to which other governments pay lip serviceThu 12 Feb 2026 20.05 CET
Protecting archaeological sites. Preventing water theft. The streamlining of land purchases. If anyone doubted the real purpose of the motley collection of new administrative and enforcement measures for the illegally occupied West Bank, Israel’s defence minister spelt it out: “We will continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state,” Israel Katz said in a joint statement with the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich.
While the world’s attention was fixed upon the annihilation in Gaza, settlers in the West Bank intensified their campaign of ethnic cleansing. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed there since October 2023; a fifth of them were children. Many more have been driven from their homes by relentless harassment and the destruction of infrastructure, with entire Palestinian communities erased across vast swathes of land.
With Israel heading to elections in months, Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners are in a hurry. While they and their allies have changed the facts on the ground dramatically, and have steadily expanded Israel’s control, the bureaucratic measures adopted by the security cabinet last Sunday are “tectonic”, as one scholar notes. They ease land theft, stripping away the very limited constraints on purchase, and destroy the nominal authority of Palestinians in areas A and B.
The White House has reiterated Donald Trump’s opposition to annexation, but talks with Mr Netanyahu in Washington on Wednesday focused on Iran. To the extent that the US president thinks about Palestinians at all, he thinks about Gaza. Yet this cannot be treated separately from the West Bank. Arab and Islamic states central to his peace plan have warned that the new measures will “inflame violence, deepen the conflict and endanger regional stability and security”.
The declaration of a ceasefire in Gaza – which has not stopped the Israeli military killing Palestinians there either – has reduced the political pressure on other governments to act. There are no signs that the outrage at last Sunday’s decision will translate into action. The UK “strongly condemns” the measures. The EU said that sanctions were “still on the table” but is clearly in no hurry to act. Within Israel, only a handful dissent.
Hunger and desperation endure in Gaza while the Trump administration promotes fantastical visions of a glittering skyline. Israel has demolished the East Jerusalem headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), the UN body which supports millions of Palestinian refugees, and is booting out NGOs, including Médecins Sans Frontières, from across occupied Palestine.
In 2024, the UN’s international court of justice ruled that Israel should end its illegal occupation as quickly as possible. Last year international outrage over Gaza forced multiple governments, including the UK, to recognise a Palestinian state, dragged by their publics. Those symbolic announcements look increasingly hollow. Real action cannot wait, for Israel’s government will not.
TEL AVIV, February 5, 2026 (WAFA) — Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said a “violent and criminal attempt at ethnic cleansing” is taking place in the occupied West Bank, accusing Israeli police, the army and the Shin Bet security service of involvement and support for attacks carried out by extremist settlers.
In an article published in the Israeli daily Haaretz, Olmert said that armed and violent settler groups are persecuting, injuring and killing Palestinians living in the area. He said the attacks include burning olive groves, homes and vehicles, breaking into houses, physically assaulting residents, harming livestock, dispersing sheep herds and attempting to steal them.
Olmert stated that “Jewish terrorists” are attacking Palestinians with hatred and violence for a single purpose: forcing them to flee their homes in order to prepare the area for Jewish settlement and advance a dream of annexing all the land.
He said the attacks are taking place in front of the closed eyes of police officers and soldiers, arguing that hundreds of violent youths would not have been able to carry out such acts had they not been equipped with weapons through the initiative and encouragement of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
According to Olmert, militias operating in the West Bank are acting with direct backing and assistance from Israeli government officials, adding that the Israeli police also serve as a source of encouragement for “Jewish terrorism.”
He further argued that the Shin Bet does not employ against Jewish extremists the same tools it uses effectively against Palestinians, and fails to act decisively to prevent attacks, identify rioters, or locate and arrest the leaders of these groups.
Olmert said the issue goes beyond the Israeli army’s failure to prevent unrest in the occupied territories, suggesting that in many cases soldiers cooperate with rioters or remain nearby, watching events unfold without intervention.
He called on the international community to take political measures to compel the Israeli government to activate mechanisms to stop what he described as crimes against humanity committed under its sponsorship, protection and support.
Olmert concluded by saying there may be no option other than expecting the International Criminal Court to become the inevitable address for investigation, exposure of those responsible, and steps that could ultimately lead to their arrest and prosecution.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — A top Israeli official said Tuesday that measures adopted by the government that deepen Israeli control in the occupied West Bank amounted to implementing “de facto sovereignty,” using language that mirrors critics’ warnings about the intent behind the moves.
The steps “actually establish a fact on the ground that there will not be a Palestinian state,” Energy Minister Eli Cohen told Israel’s Army Radio.
Palestinians, Arab countries and human rights groups have called the moves announced Sunday an annexation of the territory, home to roughly 3.4 million Palestinians who seek it for a future state.
Cohen’s comments followed similar remarks by other members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz.
The moves — and Israeli officials’ own descriptions of them — put the country at odds with both regional allies and previous statements from U.S. President Donald Trump. Netanyahu has traveled to Washington to meet with him later this week.
Last year, Trump said he wouldn’t allow Israel to annex the West Bank. The U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that aimed to stop the war in Gaza also acknowledged Palestinian aspirations for statehood.
Widespread condemnation
The measures further erode the Palestinian Authority’s limited powers, and it’s unclear the extent to which it can oppose them.
In a statement on Tuesday, President Mahmoud Abbas’ cabinet “instructed all public and private Palestinian institutions not to engage with these Israeli measures and to strictly adhere to Palestinian laws and regulations in force.”
A group of eight Arab and Muslim-majority countries expressed their “absolute rejection” of the measures, calling them in a joint statement Monday illegal and warning they would “fuel violence and conflict in the region.”
Israel’s pledge not to annex the West Bank is embedded in its diplomatic agreements with some of those countries and renewed warnings that it was a “red line” for the Emirates led Israel to shelve some high-level discussions on the matter last year.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “gravely concerned” by the measures.
“They are driving us further and further away from a two-State solution and from the ability of the Palestinian authority and the Palestinian people to control their own destiny,” his spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said on Monday.
What the measures mean
The measures, approved by Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet on Sunday, expand Israel’s enforcement authority over land use and planning in areas run by the Palestinian Authority, making it easier for Jewish settlers to force Palestinians to give up land.
Smotrich and Katz on Sunday said they would lift long-standing restrictions on land sales to Israeli Jews in the West Bank, shift some control over sensitive holy sites — including Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque, also known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs — and declassify land registry records to ease property acquisitions.
They also revive a government committee empowered to make what officials described as “proactive” land purchases in the territory, a step intended to reserve land for future settlement expansion.
Taken together, the moves add an official stamp to Israel’s accelerating expansion and would override parts of decades-old agreements that split the West Bank between areas under Israeli control and areas where the Palestinian Authority exercises limited autonomy.
More than 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for an independent state along with the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians are not permitted to sell land privately to Israelis. Settlers can buy homes on land controlled by Israel’s government.
The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.
“These decisions constitute a direct violation of the international agreements to which Israel is committed and are steps toward the annexation of Areas A and B,” anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now said on Sunday, referring to parts of the West Bank where the Palestinian Authority exercised some autonomy.
__ Natalie Melzer contributed reporting from Nahariya, Israel.
Analysts say Israeli changes have cornered Palestinian Authority and will pave way for ethnic cleansing
A large Star of David is mounted atop a building near a watchtower in a new Israeli settlement near Beita, close to Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, 9 February 2026 (Reuters/Ammar Awad)
Published date: 9 February 2026 17:29 GMT | Last update:18 hours 4 mins ago
New Israeli measures in the occupied West Bank will cement de facto annexation and bring an end to the Oslo Accords, analysts say, dashing hopes for a Palestinian state.
Announced on Sunday, the sweeping changes expand Israel’s civil control in Areas A and B – where all major Palestinian cities and towns are located – which since the Oslo Accords of 1993 have officially been under Palestinian Authority (PA) jurisdiction.
The measures also make it easier for Jewish Israelis to privately own land in the West Bank, potentially accelerating settlement expansion.
This is achieved by scrapping a law preventing the sale of Palestinian-owned land to Jewish Israelis, easing sales regulations, and lifting the confidentiality of land registration records – a move that could facilitate forgery of land purchase documents, a tactic commonly used by settlers.
“The decision is among the most direct and dangerous steps taken [against Palestinians],” Jamal Juma, a Palestinian coordinator at the Stop the Wall campaign, told Middle East Eye.
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“In effect, it signals the end of everything introduced by the Oslo Accords and strips the Palestinian Authority of its powers.”
‘The new measures effectively reduce the PA to little more than a security agent for Israel’
– Jamal Juma, coordinator at Stop the Wall campaign
Under the new unilaterally imposed arrangements, building licensing and construction in the southern West Bank city of Hebron will also be transferred from Palestinian authorities to the Israeli military.
The transfer would allow Israeli changes in the Old City of Hebron, including the Ibrahimi Mosque, which violates the 1997 Hebron Protocol agreements between Israel and the PA.
Israeli ministers and settler groups hailed the changes.
Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right minister overseeing civilian affairs in the West Bank, vowed after the changes were announced to “continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state”.
Regavim, a pro-settler group, said the new measures “mark a clear break from the Oslo framework”.
The PA and nearly all Palestinian factions condemned the measures, calling them illegal steps aimed at deepening annexation and expanding settlements.
Eight Muslim-majority countries – Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates – denounced the changes, saying they aim to “impose unlawful Israeli sovereignty” in the West Bank.
De facto annexation
For years, Israel has sought to annex the occupied West Bank, with officials and ministers publicly expressing support for such a move.
In July, Israel’s parliament passed a non-binding resolution calling for the annexation of the territory.
While the proposal carries no legal weight and does not alter the official status of the West Bank, it is widely seen as a symbolic step designed to build momentum towards future unilateral action.
Trump, the West Bank and annexation: Israel in the driver’s seat
However, facing international pressure – especially from its ally, the United States – to avoid official annexation, the current Israeli government has taken several measures that make annexation a de facto reality.
In September, Smotrich unveiled a plan to annex 82 percent of the West Bank and incorporate it into Israel.
He said the plan was prepared by the Settlement Administration within the Ministry of Defence.
The principle behind the plan is to take control of “maximum land with minimum [Palestinian] population,” gradually dismantling the PA, which serves as the internationally recognised governing body in parts of the West Bank.
Juma, a long-time campaigner against settlement expansion, said Israel is advancing annexation on the ground through three parallel and mutually reinforcing tracks: settlement expansion, Palestinian displacement, and legal and administrative restructuring.
Under the current government, which took office in early 2023, settlement expansion has reached its highest level since the UN began tracking such data in 2017.
In 2025 alone, nearly 47,390 housing units were advanced, approved, or tendered, up from around 26,170 in 2024.
By comparison, an average of 12,815 housing units were added annually between 2017 and 2022.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described the expansion as “relentless”.
Daniella Weiss, Israel’s ‘settler godmother’, has a hotline to Netanyahu – and plans for Gaza
Juma highlighted that settlement growth is supported by an “enormous” expansion of settler-only infrastructure across the West Bank, including roads, bridges and other projects linking settlements directly to Israel proper.
The West Bank is also experiencing the largest wave of forced displacement in years, driven by military assaults in the north and settler violence.
The changes to legal and administrative frameworks are only part of the broader Israeli policy to create a de facto reality of annexation, according to Juma.
“Settlement expansion, Palestinian displacement, and legal restructuring are advancing in parallel, accelerating the annexation of the West Bank,” he said.
“The latest measures take it further by targeting the future of the Palestinian Authority and governance in the territory.”
PA ‘cornered’
One of the most significant measures introduced on Sunday is the expansion of Israeli civil control into Areas A and B of the West Bank.
Under the stated aims of protecting ancient sites, preventing water-related offences, and addressing environmental hazards, Israeli authorities would now be able to manage civilian affairs directly in major Palestinian cities.
As Israel devours the West Bank, Abbas clings on to a sinking PA
Services such as waste management and sewage are set to be coordinated directly with the Israeli military in some cities, bypassing the PA.
“The new measures effectively reduce the PA to little more than a security agent for Israel, stripping it of virtually all administrative powers,” said Juma.
He warned that the Palestinian Authority now faces an existential crisis, although it remains unclear what steps it will take.
Following the announcement, Hussein al-Sheikh, deputy president of the PA, called on the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the UN Security Council to hold emergency sessions to “discuss and condemn” the Israeli decision and demand its reversal.
“These decisions have cornered the PA,” Juma said.
“It now has no real options: either it continues as a security agent for the occupation in every sense of the word, or it shifts towards a new Palestinian resistance plan to confront these measures.”
Hebron targeted
The new measures specifically target Hebron, introducing far-reaching changes to the city.
The city is home to approximately 200,000 Palestinians and 700 Israeli settlers.
For decades, it has been a focal point of Israeli settlement activity and is the only Palestinian city outside of East Jerusalem where settlers live within the urban centre.
Most West Bank settlers live in outlying areas, away from major Palestinian towns.
Hebron also contains the Ibrahimi Mosque, an ancient site revered by Muslims, Christians and Jews, and has long been the site of settler raids and takeover attempts.
Following a 1994 massacre at the mosque by an Israeli settler, the city was divided into two areas under the Hebron Protocol agreements: H1, controlled by Palestinians, covering roughly 80 percent of the city; and H2, controlled by the Israeli military, covering 20 percent.
‘For many years, the occupation ‘managed the conflict’ with Palestinians – but today they are moving toward resolving it through outright ethnic cleansing’
– Hisham Sharabati, researcher
The new measures transfer municipal powers in Hebron from the PA to Israeli authorities and place planning and service provision around the Ibrahimi Mosque under Israeli control, effectively dismantling the Hebron Protocol arrangements.
Hisham Sharabati, a Hebron-based researcher with the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre (JLAC), told MEE that the latest move is part of a decades-long Israeli policy to ethnically cleanse the city.
“The new changes mean the settlement planning council would oversee public spaces, road construction, and services in Hebron,” he said.
“This will inevitably prioritise Israeli settlers over Palestinians, giving them legal control over areas that have long been Palestinian.”
Sharabati warned that around 35,000 Palestinians living in H2, who have long endured heavy military restrictions, are likely to be the first affected.
He also cautioned that similar measures could soon be extended to other Palestinian cities.
“There is a campaign targeting the entire Palestinian presence in the West Bank,” he said.
“This long-standing policy continues, but at an accelerated pace.
“For many years, the occupation ‘managed the conflict’ with Palestinians – but today they are moving toward resolving it through outright ethnic cleansing, paving the way for annexation.”
Close to 1,000 new barriers have been set up by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank since the start of the genocide in Gaza two years ago, according to a Palestinian government body called the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.
The commission said 916 gates, barriers, and walls have been erected across the territory since 7 October 2023.
Many of these barriers are metal gates, sometimes manned by Israeli soldiers, which are put up at many town and village entrances, as well as between West Bank cities.
The military uses these barriers to control the movement of Palestinians and prevent people from entering or exiting certain areas.
The UN said last month that it documented the establishment of 18 new gates in the occupied West Bank.
It also said Israel uses concrete blocks and large earth mounds to restrict Palestinian movement in the territory. Earth mounds are particularly common during the Israeli army’s violent raids in West Bank refugee camps.
Residents in the village of Aboud told the Washington Post that the gates are closed daily from 6:00 am to 9:00 am, preventing students from reaching university and citizens from reaching their jobs.
“Under the current circumstances, everything has been cut off. Everything has stopped,” a resident of Deir Dibwan village told the newspaper.
Around three million Palestinians are now forced to make long detours, sometimes taking more than an hour, for a journey not meant to take longer than 20 minutes.
“This is all part of the occupation’s strategy to undermine people’s sense of security,” one resident, a taxi driver, said.
As Israel solidifies its decades-old occupation, settler violence continues to escalate with the backing of the military.
In recent weeks, Palestinian olive harvesters have come under increased aggression by settlers. Earlier this month, harvesters were attacked by settlers in the village of Kafr Thulth. Shepherds were also assaulted, and a number of their goats were killed by settlers.
Olive farmers from Farata were also shot at with live ammunition by settlers recently. The Israeli military has backed and contributed to the settler campaign against harvesters.
The Israeli military has uprooted thousands of olive trees in the village of Al-Mughayyir, which comes under constant attacks by settler lynch mobs aiming to displace families from their land.
In January this year, Israeli troops launched a massive operation in the occupied West Bank cities of Tulkarem and Jenin. The months that followed have seen Tel Aviv displace tens of thousands of civilians from the two cities and destroy massive amounts of civilian infrastructure in a targeted demolition campaign.
Residents have not been allowed to return to their neighborhoods.
In response to a recent surge in resistance activity in the occupied West Bank, Israel has escalated its raids and has ordered the military to “take all necessary measures” against “terrorists.”
The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it assassinated three “terrorists” from the Jenin refugee camp, in a joint operation with the Shin Bet security service and the Yamam border police unit.
Without law enforcement, Palestinians’ lives, homes and property are left vulnerable, and they soon realize the only way they can protect themselves and their possessions is to leaveS
The war in Gaza, the public attention that is focused on the hostages and their abandonment, the stormy debates for and against population transfer and deliberate starvation as well as the question of how many tens of thousands – including children – must die for Israel to be shocked out of its actions: All these, plus the roiling domestic politics, create ideal conditions for settlers’ quiet and systematic expulsion of Palestinians from Area C of the West Bank, which is under exclusive Israeli control.
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After the war began, the settlers developed a new method for displacing Palestinian communities: They establish settlement outposts adjacent to them and immediately begin to assault their residents, steal their livestock and restrict their movements.
In the absence of law enforcement, the Palestinians’ lives, homes and property are left vulnerable. They quickly realize that the only way they can protect themselves and their possessions is to leave.
According to the data of Kerem Navot, an Israeli nonprofit that monitors land-use policy in the West Bank, since the war began around 60 Palestinian communities have been expelled from Area C (Hagar Shezaf, Hebrew Haaretz, Friday).
The latest victim of this method is the Ramallah-area Bedouin village al-Mughayyir. Its residents have lived there for some 40 years, but it took settlers less than a week to expel them.
They have been subjected to harassment for two years, but the outpost established last week set off a dramatic escalation that led to its displacement.
In this case, there was no need for a violent attack: A threat sufficed, since residents knew well what had happened to other villages that failed to heed the threats.
The new outpost is less than 100 meters (yards) from one of the village homes. The IDF and Civil Administration did not act to remove it or to protect the Palestinian residents, who fled from their homes in fear. This is quiet expulsion, under the watchful but silent eyes of the state and the military.
The “hilltop youth” do not act alone. The settlement enterprise is a terrifying apparatus with the power not only to build outposts and expel communities but also to elect representatives to the Knesset and place them in the cabinet.
MK Tzvi Succot has already been spotted in the new outpost. A petition submitted to the High Court of Justice demanded temporary relief: moving the outpost 3 kilometers (almost 2 miles) from the village and conducting regular patrols.
The state was asked to explain its failure to take action against the expulsion attempt. Justice Yosef Elron ruled against the requested temporary measures and gave the state until May 29 to respond. The court, then, is a party to the Palestinians’ abandonment.
The occupying power is responsible for protecting the people living under occupation. The army and the Civil Administration must act immediately to remove the settlers, protect the Palestinians and prevent the next expulsion.
In the absence of such action, it is clear that the Israeli establishment is a party to the expulsion. Israel cannot continue to ignore its obligations under international law and agreements to which it is a signatory.
The above article is Haaretz’s lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.
Within hours, Israeli forces demolished homes, wells, and even caves in the West Bank hamlet of Khilet al-Dabe’, leaving families with nowhere to shelter.
Israeli forces demolish buildings in Khirbet Khilet al-Dabe, in Masafer Yatta, the West Bank, May 5, 2025. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
In the early hours of Monday morning, two massive Hyundai excavators and two Caterpillar bulldozers roared out of the gates of the Ma’on settlement in the South Hebron Hills — illegally built on Palestinian land belonging to the village of At-Tuwani. For residents living in the area, the sight of these “yellow monsters,” as they call them, is an omen: the day will be filled with destruction, and families will lose homes they woke up in just hours earlier.
Roughly 90 minutes later, the full force of the operation became clear. Military jeeps, soldiers from the Israeli army, Border Patrol units, Civil Administration officials, and a group of workers assembled and then moved as a unit toward Khirbet Khilet al-Dabe’, a small but resilient village nestled between the higher lands of Shafa Yatta and the lower hills of Masafer Yatta. I rushed there with other local activists to document what we feared was coming.
We were stopped by a group of masked soldiers about 80 meters from the village’s homes. “You are not allowed to move forward,” one soldier barked, dropping a rusty old bucket on the ground and declaring, “This is the boundary of a closed military zone: whoever crosses it will be arrested.”
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We asked if there was an official military order establishing the area as restricted. One soldier responded, “It will arrive in a few minutes.” But the demolition dragged on for hours, and no such order ever appeared. This wasn’t enforcement of a legal ruling, but rather an exercise of sheer military power. In truth, the soldiers didn’t even pretend to be upholding Israel’s own discriminatory laws. They simply threatened us with weapons and arrests.
As soldiers held us back, one excavator tore through two water wells, while others stormed into the community itself. Families were forcefully removed from their homes. Among them was 80-year-old Amna Dababseh and her husband Ali, 87.
Ali Dababseh stands near soldiers as Israeli forces demolish buildings in the West Bank village of Khilet al-Dabe’, May 5, 2025. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
“My daughter brought us breakfast and we were just about to eat, when she said the army had entered the village,” Amna recounted. “Suddenly, soldiers were at our door. One pointed at our home and said, ‘Get out. We’re going to demolish this house.’ I told him: ‘My husband had a stroke and can barely walk. I have diabetes. Where do you expect us to go?’ He just said, ‘Go to the mountain. Move!’”
Amna’s voice cracked as she described the chaos. Border police walked around the homes, evicting family after family. Men, women, and children were pushed up a hill overlooking the destruction of their community. “This village has suffered demolitions for 20 years,” Amna said, “but never like this.”
She stood crying among dozens of others, watching her life’s work reduced to rubble. Despite the trauma and shock, she kept repeating: “I will never leave this village — not until my last day.” Her husband and others echoed the same sentiment, determined to defy and resist a system designed to erase them.
A Palestinian woman walks by as Israeli forces demolish buildings in the West Bank village of Khilet al-Dabe’, May 5, 2025. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
“They want to erase us”
What took place in Khilet al-Dabe’ was not merely a demolition — it was a sweeping erasure. In total, nine homes were destroyed, along with six caves, seven wells, four livestock shelters, 10 water tanks, and the village’s only solar energy system and internet infrastructure.
Khirbet Khilet al-Dabe’ is one of the main communities featured in our documentary “No Other Land.” The village is known for its natural greenery and agricultural life, and unlike many others in Masafer Yatta, its residents focus less on livestock and more on cultivating almond, grape, and olive trees. They maintain traditional stone terraces and till the land year-round. The village’s elevated position and lush vegetation make it one of the most visually stunning in the area.
But geography is no protection. Over the past 18 months, four new settler outposts have been established to the east and west of Khilet al-Dabe’. Less than three months ago, on Feb. 10, Israeli forces had entered Khilet al-Dabe’ and destroyed seven homes and two caves. Amer Dababseh, Amna and Ali’s son, had his home and cave demolished that day. Since 2018, his property has been destroyed at least seven times. After the February attack, he and his family sought refuge with his elderly parents; now, that home has also been destroyed.
This time, Israeli forces left Amer and many others with literally nothing. Even the caves — historically used as emergency shelters for displaced families — were demolished. Now, many villagers, including children, have no choice but to sleep in the open.
The aftermath of Israeli demolitions in the West Bank village of Khirbet Khilet al-Dabe’, May 5, 2025. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
Once the army withdrew, villagers returned to the site, digging through the rubble for anything salvageable: clothing, kitchenware, personal belongings. The scene resembled a natural disaster, as if an earthquake had flattened their homes, wells, and lives.
The goal of Monday’s demolition, locals believe, is part of a broader effort: to push Palestinian residents off their land and clear the way for further illegal settlement expansion. “They want to erase us — not just our homes, but our presence, our history, and our future,” Amer said. For the families of Khilet al-Dabe’, the rubble is not just debris — it is a reminder that they are standing in the way of an expanding occupation. And despite it all, they are refusing to leave.
In response to +972’s inquiry, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) stated that its personnel “conducted enforcement activity against several illegal structures built without permits in Firing Zone 918, in violation of both planning regulations and military access restrictions,” and that “the operation was carried out in full compliance with legal procedures and approved enforcement priorities.”
An Israeli army spokesperson said that “the enforcement actions were carried out after the completion of all required administrative procedures and in accordance with the enforcement priority framework previously presented to the Supreme Court.” It further claimed that “a closure order was issued in the adjacent area, and the general order which applied to the location in question was known to the residents as well. The temporary order issued was presented upon request.”
Israel’s public admission that it has killed two civilians in the Gaza Strip for every Hamas militant—a roughly 66% noncombatant death rate—is a major understatement, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.
Based on preliminary statistics, the Geneva-based nonprofit estimated that at least 90% of the people killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza thus far have been civilians, a rate that exceeds those of the U.S. wars on Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Euro-Med Monitor found that when including those believed to be missing under the rubble of Gaza’s decimated infrastructure, Israeli forces have killed 21,022 people in the besieged Palestinian territory since October 7, an estimated 19,660 of whom were civilians. The nonprofit said that 60% of the civilians killed were women and children.
The group said its figures “clearly refute” Israel’s claim of a two-to-one ratio of civilians to militants killed, which an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson hailed as “tremendously positive” in a CNNinterview earlier this week. Israeli forces believe they have killed around 5,000 Hamas fighters since October 7.
“If you compare that ratio to any other conflict in urban terrain between a military and a terrorist organization using civilians as their human shields, and embedded in the civilian population, you will find that that ratio is tremendous, tremendously positive, and perhaps unique in the world,” said the IDF’s Jonathan Conricus.
But an analysis released last month by the watchdog Action on Armed Violence found that Israel’s latest assault on Gaza—carried out with the help of artificial intelligence, according to recent reports—has been far deadlier for civilians than even its previous attacks on the strip.
The group estimated that each of Israel’s casualty-causing strikes on Gaza since October 7 have killed an average of 10.1 civilians.
“This significantly surpasses previous Gaza operations which, at its historic recent worst in Operation Protective Edge, was just 2.5 civilian fatalities per casualty-causing strike,” the watchdog said. “As such, the current operation appears to be four times more lethal, based on per injurious strike data, than previous Israeli operations. It also exceeds the global average of 7.4.”
Citing military analysts, the Financial Timesreported Tuesday that “the destruction of northern Gaza in less than seven weeks has approached that caused by the yearslong carpet-bombing of German cities during the Second World War.”
“Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne—some of the world’s heaviest-ever bombings are remembered by their place names,” U.S. military historian Robert Pape told the newspaper. “Gaza will also go down as a place name denoting one of history’s heaviest conventional bombing campaigns.”
Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said Tuesday that the “pulverizing of Gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age.”
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The Civil Administration is expected to begin forcefully moving Bedouin in the West Bank to a permanent location as part of a plan to remove all the Bedouin in Area C (under both Israel’s civilian and military aegis) from lands they have been living on for decades.
The plan will eventually relocate Bedouin living in other areas of the West Bank. According to various calculations, some 27,000 Bedouin live in the West Bank, mostly in Area C.
A Bedouin family in their tent near Ramallah.
Photo by: Michal Fattal
The first to be relocated will be the approximately 2,400 Bedouin living in an area east of Jerusalem, which will make it easier for Israel to implement its plan to expand the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim and other settlements to create contiguity of construction for Jews up to Jerusalem.
Even those familiar with the long and shameful history of America’s appeasement of Israel were taken aback by the Obama administration’s extraordinary offer to Netanyahu.
In exchange for a paltry one-off 90 day freeze on illegal settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem), Israel will get 20 F-35 stealth fighter jets worth $3 billion and a slew of other goodies. Yet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly gave up to eight hours with Netanyahu trying to persuade him to accept “one of the most generous bribes ever bestowed by the United States on any foreign power.” Praising the Israeli Prime Minister for eventually agreeing to put the offer to his security cabinet, President Obama took it as “a signal that he is serious.”
(Photo credit: John Macdougall)
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