West Bank

Who controls the West Bank?

Israel has controlled the West Bank since 1967, and under the Oslo accords the Palestinian Authority governs parts of it. The Oslo II accord, signed on September 28, 1995 during a five-year interim period that began in 1994, divided the West Bank into three areas. After handovers that ended in 2000, Area A (about 18% of the land, including the main Palestinian cities) is under Palestinian civil and security control. In Area B (about 22%) the Palestinians run civil affairs and Israel keeps security control. Area C (about 60%) is under full Israeli control and includes almost all the settlements. Talks on a final deal were due to end by May 1999 but never did, so the split remains. Israeli troops also carry out raids and arrests in Areas A and B, which Israel says are needed to stop attacks. East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a step most countries do not recognize, is outside the three areas.

The Palestinian Authority was set up in 1994. Mahmoud Abbas was elected its president in January 2005, and there has been no presidential election since. On October 10, 2026 Abbas canceled legislative elections due on November 28 and set presidential and legislative elections for September 11, 2027. He cited Israeli measures in the West Bank, Israel's incomplete withdrawal from Gaza and limits on election staff and observers. His opponents say the delay extends his rule.

How did Israel take the West Bank?

Arab armies invaded the day after Israel declared independence in May 1948. Israelis call the war that followed the War of Independence. About 750,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes, by the count of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Palestinians call it the Nakba, "the catastrophe". Many settled in West Bank refugee camps such as Jenin. Jordan held the West Bank after the war and annexed it in 1950, a step most countries did not recognize.

The Six-Day War began on June 5, 1967, when Israel struck Egypt, saying an Arab attack was imminent. Jordan joined the fighting the same day, and Israel captured the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. UN Security Council Resolution 242 called for "withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict" and for every state's right to "secure and recognized boundaries". Israel stresses that the English text says "territories", not "the territories". Arab states point to the equally official French text, which says "des territoires occupés" ("the occupied territories"), and read it as all of them. Jordan gave up its claim to the West Bank in 1988.

Why do the settlements matter?

Israel has built settlements in the West Bank since 1967. Israel's government and settlers call them communities or towns. Peace Now, an Israeli group that opposes them, counted 146 official settlements outside East Jerusalem in August 2026, plus hundreds of outposts built without government approval. About 541,000 settlers lived outside East Jerusalem on January 1, 2026, by Israeli population registry figures compiled by a pro-settlement group. At the end of 2023 about 234,000 Israelis lived in parts of East Jerusalem built after 1967, by Israeli official figures. Israel calls these neighborhoods, and most countries consider them settlements.

The UN Security Council (Resolution 2334 of 2016), the International Committee of the Red Cross and most governments say the settlements break the Fourth Geneva Convention, which bars an occupying power from moving its own civilians into occupied land. Israel disputes this. It says the land had no recognized sovereign in 1967 and that Jews have a historic right to live there. Palestinians say the settlements and the land around them cut the West Bank into pieces and make a Palestinian state impossible. In August 2025 Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said a plan for 3,401 homes near Jerusalem, called E1, would "bury the idea of a Palestinian state."

What is happening in the West Bank now?

Violence has risen since Hamas, the Islamist group that ruled Gaza, attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. From then to October 6, 2025, the UN humanitarian office (OCHA) counted 999 Palestinians killed in the West Bank, 967 of them by Israeli forces and 20 by settlers. Israel says its raids target militants and people planning attacks. Over the same period OCHA counted 41 Israelis killed by Palestinians there, 22 of them members of the security forces. By July 13, 2026 the Palestinian toll had reached 1,111. On September 20, 2026 a settler was shot dead near Halamish.

Armed groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, were active in the northern refugee camps. The Palestinian Authority itself fought them in Jenin in December 2024. In January 2025 Israel launched Operation Iron Wall, which it said targeted them, in the camps of Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams. About 40,000 people were displaced at the peak, and more than 33,000 were still displaced in August 2026, by UN figures. Defense Minister Israel Katz said troops would stay in Jenin camp "permanently". On August 28, 2026 an Israeli air strike in Jenin killed three Palestinians. Israel said it targeted a Hamas operative. Islamic Jihad said he was a senior member of its armed wing.

OCHA counted more than 1,800 settler attacks causing casualties or damage in 2025, the most since its records began in 2006. An Israeli security official, using a different method, counted about 870. In July 2026 Netanyahu called coverage of settler violence "bloated" and said it involved "a handful of kids". Some 600 former Israeli security officials asked President Trump to act.

Will Israel annex the West Bank?

Israel has not formally annexed the West Bank outside East Jerusalem. On October 22, 2025 a bill to apply Israeli sovereignty there passed a preliminary vote in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, by 25 votes to 24, while Netanyahu's Likud party, except one member, boycotted the vote. The bill has not advanced since. President Trump said annexation "won't happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries." In February 2026 Israel's security cabinet ordered the repeal of a Jordanian-era ban on selling West Bank land to Israelis and moved building powers in Hebron from the Palestinian Authority to Israel. Ministers said they were repealing "discriminatory Jordanian legislation". UN bodies and Peace Now called the measures annexation in practice. A White House official said Trump "does not support Israel annexing the West Bank."

Israel holds an election on October 27, 2026. Smotrich, whose party wants full sovereignty, urged Israel on September 27 to "go to war" in the West Bank and dismantle the Palestinian Authority. Israel has withheld the tax revenue it collects for the Palestinian Authority for 17 months, by the Authority's count. Israel also deducts sums it says match the Authority's payments to Palestinian prisoners and to families of Palestinians killed by Israel, including attackers. Israel says the payments reward terrorism. The Authority says that since 2025 they have been welfare based on need, and Israel says they continue. The Authority now pays its employees only part of their salaries.