I. Introduction

On 11 November 2024, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, met with his far-right faction at the Israeli Parliament and announced his intention to lead “the government of Israel [to] work with the new administration of President Trump and the international community to apply Israeli sovereignty over [the West Bank]”.[1] To this end, he instructed the Settlement Administration at the Defence Ministry and the Civil Administration to lay the groundwork for annexation and prepare the necessary infrastructure to apply Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank.[2] This is in line with the Israeli Government’s guiding principles of 2022, which pledged to lead to the formulation and promotion of a policy to extend Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank.[3]

As the Israeli Finance Minister and a minister in the Defence Ministry, Smotrich has been spearheading settlement expansion and annexation in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). With the transfer of settlement issues to the Settlement Administration, and the transfer of authority from the head of the Civil Administration to a “Civilian Deputy” directly under Smotrich, the government has accelerated approval of settlements establishment. Smotrich’s plan includes increasing the settler population in the West Bank by 500,000, including an improvement of infrastructure in the settlements and illegal outposts.[4]

In January 2025, while Israel has been carrying out a large scale military assault on the northern West Bank,[5] a bill was advanced in the Israeli Parliament (the Knesset) to annul the applicable Jordanian law governing the West Bank, “The Law on Leasing and Selling Real Estate to Foreigners, No. 40, 1953”, to open up the sale of Palestinian West Bank lands to Israeli settlers.[6] In February 2025, Israel’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation, examined a bill to progress the annexation of West Bank settlements Ma’ale Adumim, Givat Ze'ev, Efrat, and Ma’ale Mikhmas located around Jerusalem.[7] On 23 March, Israel’s Political Security Cabinet approved Minister Smotrich’s proposal to “split 13 [settlement] localities in [the West Bank] from their adjacent localities and to work towards recognizing them as independent localities” thereby “normalis[ing]” the settlements by recognising them as independent entities, while approving “tens of thousands of [settlement] housing units”.[8] On 24 March, Israel’s Minister for Agriculture, Avi Dichter, encouraged, “We’re at a crucial historic opportunity that must not be missed; the time has come to apply Israeli sovereignty over [the West Bank]”.[9]

Extending Israel’s sovereignty over the oPt amounts to purported annexation. One essential tool used by Israel to carry out its annexation of the West Bank is the strategic fragmentation of the Palestinian people through discriminatory inhumane acts of apartheid.[10] The 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Oslo II Accord) divided the West Bank into three areas: Area A under full Palestinian civil and security control, Area B under full Palestinian civil control and joint Israeli-Palestinian security control, and Area C under full Israeli civil and military control, which comprises more than 60 percent of the West Bank. The occupied West Bank has been systematically fragmented into hundreds of separate enclaves or ‘Bantustans’ by Israel’s ever-growing settlement enterprise, where a total of 737,332 Israeli settlers are living in a total of 147 Israeli settlements and 224 outposts in the West Bank.[11]

The year 2024 witnessed an acceleration in Israel’s annexation plans and practices. By 20 March 2025, Minister Smotrich announced “an annual record for approvals for housing units in Gush Etzion, and we are only in the first third of the year. We are leading a revolution in [the West Bank]- to strengthen our sovereignty”.[12] Approximately half of all the land declared as state land since the Oslo Accords were declared in 2024.[13] At least 59 new outposts have been established, most of them pastoral outposts, while at least 8 outposts have been established in Area B for the first time since the Oslo Accords.[14] Additionally, Israel is further extending its jurisdiction in Area B, including in archaeological sites, whereby the Israeli Civil Administration can restrict development and carry out demolitions following an Israeli cabinet decision.[15] Also, on 18 July 2024, the Israeli Commander of the Central Command signed two orders granting Israel enforcement, planning, and building authorities in territories transferred under the Oslo Accords to the Palestinian Authority, including demolition of Palestinian structures in Area B.[16] Demolition orders were issued and some were enforced as will be highlighted below.

II. Increased Demolitions of Palestinian Structures

For decades, Israel has been employing a discriminatory planning and zoning regime to quell Palestinian construction, forcibly transfer Palestinians and alter the oPt’s demographic composition. Israel unlawfully amended the operative Jordanian law governing Palestinian planning and zoning under military order, to introduce a new discriminatory planning system, which is unlawful in its entirety.[17] This includes the practice of ‘administrative demolitions’ premised on the sole ground of lacking a building permit, which are by design impossible for Palestinians to obtain.[18]  Even in areas where building permits can and are issued by Palestinian local authorities, Israeli authorities do not recognize such permits.

1. Demolitions in Beit Awwa Town (Hebron Governorate)

On 19 September 2024, at approximately 8:00 am, Israeli Hyundai bulldozers demolished two houses under construction of Th. S.[19] and M. S.,[20] in Areas B of Beit Awwa town, south western Hebron. The structures are located at a distance of approximately 200 meters from the Annexation Wall, and were demolished under the pretext of lacking a building permit, and building in an area restricted for construction.

While Th. S. was not notified of a demolition order or a court order to cease construction, M. S. received a demolition order, affixed to his door, on 22 July 2024, and the demolition was carried out despite objecting to it and obtaining a building permit issued by Beit Awwa Municipality. The destruction of Th. S.’s structure cost him about 70 thousand shekels, while M. S. incurred 400 thousand NIS (111 thousand USD) in losses as a result of the demolition of his almost-finished-house.

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The IOF further destroyed M. S.’s water well under construction, for which he also obtained a building permit from the Beit Awwa Municipality, under the purported grounds that the well is built in a prohibited construction area.^[21] M. S. petitioned the demolition order before the Civil Administration, which was rejected, and enforced, costing him a loss amounting to 60 thousand NIS (around 16 thousand USD).

On the same day, also at 10:00 am, the Israeli authorities demolished a barracks and two other structures belonging to R. U., located 150 meters away from the Annexation Wall. The barracks was used as a livestock pen and a warehouse, housing 10 sheep, and commercial goods, which served as the family’s primary source of income. Despite objecting to the demolition order received on 22 July 2024, and having obtained a building permit from the Beit Awwa Municipality, the structure was nonetheless demolished, without providing the owner a chance to empty it, resulting in a total loss of around 50 thousand NIS.[22]

The two other structures destroyed constituted a resting room for employees working with the owner, and the other served as his office, costing him a loss of 50 thousand NIS (around 13,600 USD). Both structures were also permitted for building by the Beit Awwa Municipality.[23] Hyundai bulldozers were used to carry out the demolitions of all three structures.
                                                               

2. Demolitions in Al-Malha village (Bethlehem Governorate)

Al-Haq also documented the demolitions of several structures in Al-Malha village, eastern Bethlehem. On 12 December 2024, Israeli authorities along with Volvo and JCB bulldozers demolished three concrete walls surrounding agricultural lands, an agricultural structure, a house, and a livestock pen under construction.[24] All owners were notified and received a demolition order, several on 27 August 2024. Al-Malha village council assigned a lawyer to object to the demolition orders, but failed to stop their enforcement. The demolitions were carried out under the pretext of building without a building permit, under Military Order Regarding Restriction of Construction in the Agreed-Upon Reserve of 2024.[25]

These structures are located in an area designated as a nature reserve area, also known as “Agreed-Upon Reserve” based on an agreement in 1998 between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, which provided the Palestinian Authority with planning and building authorities in these areas.[26] However, on 18 July 2024, the Commander of the Central Command signed two orders transferring enforcement, planning, and building authorities in these areas to the Israeli Civil Administration, one granting Israel the authority to operate in the area, and the other restricting construction in the Agreed-Upon Reserve.[27] The demolition orders issued immediately following these two orders, the prompt enforcement of these orders, and the establishment of five outposts in the “Agreed-Upon Reserve” in 2024 are a manifestation of Israel’s annexation policy of the Palestinian land in practice, blurring the lines between the Oslo-divided areas.

III. General Context

Land confiscation and mass demolition of Palestinian homes and structures is a predominant practice and a cardinal part of Israel’s Zionist settler colonial regime that aims to eliminate and replace Palestinians with Israeli-Jews. The demolitions at hand ought not to be seen as isolated but rather as part of Israel’s policy to further the strategic fragmentation of the Palestinian people and the entrenchment of its de facto annexation of the Palestinian territory. Further, the demolition of commercial structures severely affects Palestinian economic development, which, in addition to the land, often constitutes a primary source of income for many Palestinian families.^[28]

The abovementioned Palestinian structures subjected to demolition include structures in close proximity to the Annexation Wall, ranging from 70 to around 200 meters, whereby demolitions are carried out on the basis of building in restricted areas – which refers to areas close to the Annexation Wall, settlements, and settler roads, regarded as ‘security zones’.[29] This renders these demolitions part and parcel of Israel’s settlement enterprise, which aims to disrupt Palestinian territorial contiguity, connect Israeli settlements, seize Palestinian lands and displace Palestinians under a coercive environment; hence forming an integral part of Israel’s annexation of the West Bank.

With ever more expanding settlements and settler roads, demolishing Palestinian structures built in ‘restricted areas’ effectively means appropriating extensive tracts of Palestinian land and forcing the Palestinian population into small ‘Bantustan’ enclaves. For example, the jurisdictional area designated for the newly approved settlement “Nahal Heletz” is situated very close to Palestinian homes—approximately 250 meters from Area B and Palestinian homes in Battir village, western Bethlehem, with some homes as close as 30-50 meters from the designated settlement area.[30]

The Israeli governmental decision to establish “Nahal Heletz”, which is located at the heart of a UNESCO-designated World Heritage site, is part of a plan initiated by Smotrich through the Settlement Administration to connect Gush Etzion settlement bloc to Jerusalem and sever Palestinian territorial contiguity by “driv[ing] a wedge in very narrow corridors in Area B.”[31] As per practice, this would pave the way for forthcoming demolition orders to nearby Palestinian structures, and allow for an increased wave of settler violence. Since mid-2024, serious spikes in settler attacks have been documented around seven new settler outposts constructed in Area B, including five outposts located in the “Agreed-Upon Reserve” area.[32]

Denying Palestinians building permits, and ignoring permits issued under Palestinian jurisdiction forms part of Israel’s discriminatory planning and zoning policies under its apartheid regime. Tellingly, the United Nations reported that, according to Israel’s Civil Administration, on 20 July 2023, “90–95% of Palestinian requests for permits are rejected” whereas “[o]n the Israeli side, 60–70% of the plans are discussed and approved”.^[33]

IV. Legal Analysis

On 19 July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) released a landmark Advisory Opinion finding that Israel’s presence in oPt is unlawful, and that its policies and practices “entrench Israel’s control of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, notably of East Jerusalem and of Area C of the West Bank”, and “are designed to remain in place indefinitely and to create irreversible effects on the ground”, hence they “amount to annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”^[34] More specifically, the Court found that Israel’s policies and practices of forcible evictions, extensive house demolitions and restrictions on residence and movement “indicate that [these] measures are not temporary in character and therefore cannot be considered as permissible evacuations,” and amount to forcible transfer.^[35] The above-mentioned instances are evidence that Israel is further entrenching its control in Area B as well.

The ICJ further considered that Israel’s practice of property demolition for lack of a building permit, as well as its planning policy in relation to the issuance of building permits, constitute a breach of their right to be protected from arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy, family and home, protected under Article 17, paragraph 1, of the International Covenant on Civil and Politic Rights. The Court added that this practice “cannot be justified with reference to reasonable and objective criteria nor to a legitimate public aim.”[36] It further concluded that these practices and policies that treat Palestinians differently from the settlers without proper justification constitute discrimination in violation of Article 2 of the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.[37]

Al-Haq recalls that under the law of occupation, Israel is under the obligation to “ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety”.[38] The law of occupation further provides that an occupying Power “may not effect changes in the status and intrinsic characteristics of the occupied territory.”  The Occupying Power is thus a temporary administrator vested with limited powers and does not acquire sovereignty over the occupied territory. This was also emphasised by the ICJ, as “conduct by the occupying Power that display an intent to exercise permanent control over the occupied territory may indicate an act of annexation”,[39] prohibited as an unlawful territorial acquisition resulting from the use of force under Article 2, paragraph 4 of the United Nations Charter. The Court found that “Israel’s policy of integrating the infrastructure in the West Bank, including the road network, with that of Israel […] results in the interlacement of the settlements in the West Bank with Israel in a contiguous area, fragmenting the remaining areas in the West Bank”.[40]

These intrinsic characteristics that Israel cannot change include the demography of the oPt, which Israel intends to manipulate by creating a coercive environment to force Palestinians to leave. This is contrary to Israel’s above-mentioned obligations as an occupying Power and is also prohibited under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and constitutes a grave breach thereof[41] as well as a war crime.[42]

Meanwhile, Israeli demolitions of Palestinian structures and quelling the development of the Palestinian population deny the Palestinian people’s fundamental and inalienable right to self-determination, including the right to territorial integrity, and their right to economic and social development by the systemic deprivation of Palestinian families of their lands and main source of livelihood. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk has warned that “Israel’s settlement policy, its acts of annexation, and related discriminatory legislation and measures are in breach of international law, as the International Court of Justice has confirmed, and violate Palestinians’ right to self-determination”.^[43]

In light of the above, it is incumbent on Third States to tackle Israel’s demolition of Palestinian properties in Area B through its root causes, namely Israel’s Zionist settler-colonial and apartheid regime and illegal occupation. It is all the more important considering the genocidal violence this regime is inflicting upon Palestinians in the northern West Bank aimed at demographically re-engineering refugee camps. States must use every means at their disposal to compel Israel to respect international law, including imposing a two-way arms embargo against Israel and imposing sanctions. Notably, states must impose targeted sanctions on complicit persons and institutions –Israeli and international– contributing to Israel’s international crimes against Palestinians, including complicit companies such as Hyundai, JCB, and Volvo, which provide Israel with bulldozers used to destroy Palestinian properties, as evidenced above. Alongside the International Criminal Court, Third States should trigger universal jurisdiction against perpetrators of international crimes against Palestinians, including for the construction of settlements.