oPt (West Bank) Protection Analysis Update

Against the backdrop of 16 months of active hostilities and a fragile situation in Gaza, protection actors note a steady deterioration of the protection environment in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Operations by the Israeli military in the northern West Bank, conducted in a manner that violates international law, are exposing Palestinians to unprecedented mass displacement, dispossession and violence. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in its July 2024 Advisory Opinion that Israeli practices, including the confiscation or requisition of land, the forcible transfer of the Palestinian population, the transfer by Israel of settlers to and maintenance of their presence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, constitute violations of international law. Nevertheless, Israel has expanded these practices, moving towards consolidation of its annexation of the West Bank while reducing viability of a two-State solution and violating the Palestinian peoples’ right to self-determination.

PROTECTION DRIVERS AND RISKS

Since the March 2024 Protection Analysis Update (PAU), state and settler violence against Palestinians has surged in the West Bank. This is exposing Palestinian communities to record levels of violence and abuse. The expanding movement and access restrictions severely limit Palestinians’ access to critical services including education, health and water, as well as farmland and roads, is increasingly rendering livelihoods unsustainable and deepening economic deprivation, while also serving as a flashpoint for gender-based violence. These drivers are converging to entrench the long-standing coercive environment, triggering displacement, and increasing the severity of protection risks. The protection risks requiring immediate attention in the period covered by this analysis are:

1. Use of force violations and attacks against protected persons
2. Forcible transfer
3. Enforced disappearance, arbitrary or unlawful arrest and detention
4. Psychological/emotional abuse and inflicted distress
5. Gender-based violence