Rishi Sunak says he ‘stands with Israel’
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombarding the Gaza Strip for two weeks now have been told they “will soon see it from the inside”.
In the West Bank, however, the other half of the State of Palestine remains an occupation the UN considers unlawful. There are an estimated 470,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and a further 240,000 in East Jerusalem.
They live in some 146 state-backed Jewish communities and 144 unrecognised outposts dispersed within the 86 percent Palestinian Muslim territory, according to two-state advocacy group Peace Now.
Since Hamas’ surprise attack on October 7, which killed 1,400 Israeli civilians, clashes between the two groups have been increasingly bloody – with 91 Palestinians in the West Bank confirmed dead according to the Health Ministry.
READ MORE: Hamas placing rocket launchers near schools to use ‘kids as shields’, IDF claims
The first West Bank settlement was Kfar Etzion, a Jewish community in the Judean Hills between Jerusalem and Hebron that existed prior to the 1948 UN partition.
The Israeli cabinet decided to re-establish the settlement in 1967 despite reportedly receiving legal advice that doing so could be illegitimate.
Many more followed, with satellite imagery showing how entire neighbourhoods sprung seemingly from nothing, and how they gradually expanded into towns and cities over the years.
The Oslo II areas of control: a transitional 5-year arrangement that lasts to this day (Image: UN)
But in many cases, new settlements encroach on Palestinian villages and farmland, destroying both their homes and livelihoods. A UN report in September claimed over 1,100 locals had been displaced in this way since 2022 alone.
The Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – signed in 1995 and more commonly known as Oslo II – was intended to prevent this, clearly demarcating three distinct areas of administrative control in the West Bank.
In Area A – comprised mainly urban areas like Hebron, Ramallah and Tulkarem – Palestinian authorities would have full control.
In Area B, on the outskirts of Area A cities, control would be shared between Palestinian civil and Israeli military authorities.
In Area C – everywhere else, or 60 percent of the territory – is under full Israeli military and civil control. This zone was slated to be “gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction” 30 years ago.
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This land is home to an estimated 300,000 Palestinians in some 500 communities, alongside roughly 400,000 Israeli settlers.
The area includes over 60 percent of the West Bank’s most fertile and resource-rich landscapes, including almost all of the Jordan Valley. Around 30 percent of Area C falls within a designated “firing zone” for Israeli military training, according to humanitarian NGO Anera.
The pace of settlement has increased in recent years, with 28,208 Israeli plans and tenders for new housing units in the West Bank advanced in 2022 – up almost 30 percent on 2021’s figure.
Israelis walk past a new neighbourhood under construction in Beitar Illit in 2018 (Image: GETTY)
The UN General Assembly and Security Council, the International Court of Justice, as well as the international community in general have all stated that such Israeli settlements violate the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian laws.
In particular, infringement of the Fourth Geneva Convention has been cited – which prohibits all attacks on the civilian population and civilian objects in war.
The British Government has long held this view, condemning each new wave of Israeli construction in the West Bank, but the US position has seesawed.
For decades the US considered the settlements to be “illegitimate”, until then-president Donald Trump in November 2019 shifted the global superpower’s position by declaring, they were “not per se inconsistent with international law”.
Even before the events of the past few weeks, boiling tensions between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank had made 2023 the deadliest year since records began in 2008.
Between January 1 and September 19, a total of 25 Isrealis had been killed by Palestinians and 189 Palestinians by Israelis.
Attacks against Arabs come from Israeli security services, but also from extremist settlers. Since the war began, 102 deaths have been recorded by the UN – an average of seven per day, up from a typical three per day.
