Destruction and displacement in the West Bank

On 19 January 2025, once the ceasefire in Gaza went into effect, the Israeli government declared it was adding the demand for "increased offensive activity" in the West Bank to its official list of "war objectives". The addition was merely a formal affirmation of Israel’s treatment of the West Bank since 7 October 2023 as another front in the all-out war declared on the Palestinians since the Hamas attack. In keeping with this approach, the Israeli regime has ramped up its oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank and adopted more extreme measures, including extreme arbitrary violence against innocent civilians, further loosening of the permissive open-fire policy, severe movement restrictions and disruption of daily life, blanket cancellation of permits to enter Israel, and extreme limitations on access to farmland that are critically damaging livelihoods, mass arrests and the transformation of detention facilities into a network of torture camps.

Along with the intensified oppression, in the northern West Bank Israel has begun replicating tactics and combat doctrines honed in its current offensive on Gaza. This includes increased use of airstrikes in civilian population centers, widespread and deliberate destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, and forced displacement of civilians from areas designated by the military as combat zones. These actions suggest Israel is working toward "Gazafication" of the West Bank, already implemented in the north and, according to statements by government officials, expected to spread to other parts.