Military activity and presence

Palestinian fatalities and injuries in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem

The number of Palestinian civilians, including women and children, killed or injured by Israeli armed forces in the West Bank has been steadily rising in recent years. Key reasons for this alarming trend are:

1. Relaxation of the open-fire regulations and the adoption of combat practices used during the fighting in Gaza, which increase the risk of harm to civilians.

2. An increase in the rate and intensity of settler attacks on unprotected Palestinian communities, with security forces either ignoring them or being dragged into responding, which often ends in harm to Palestinians, including killings, physical violence, and arbitrary arrests.

3. Lack of effective investigation and enforcement regarding soldiers who cause harm. According to military figures provided to Yesh Din, only 0.9% of complaints filed regarding suspected soldier offenses between 2016 and 2024 led to indictments. Investigations were opened in less than one quarter of the cases.

According to B’Tselem statistics, 221 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2025, including 54 children and five women. The vast majority were killed by Israeli armed forces, nine by settlers, and four by either one of those. According to UN figures, 3,984 Palestinians were injured in 2025, 3,141 by armed forces and 832 by settlers (the injuring party in 11 other cases was undetermined). Many civilians, including women, the elderly, and children, were injured during the large-scale military operation in the northern West Bank in early 2025 and subsequent military actions.

The increase in the number of casualties and the severity of the injuries has continued in 2026. From the beginning of the year until May 18, 2026, the UN reports 52 Palestinian fatalities: 36 were shot by armed forces, 13 by settlers, and three by undetermined parties. In addition, the UN reports 1,087 injured Palestinians, including 614 harmed by Israeli armed forces and 473 by settlers.

Yesh Din’s data show a clear policy of immunity for soldiers who kill Palestinians: the odds of an Israeli soldier being prosecuted for the killing of Palestinians in the West Bank are less than half a percent (0.4%). The proportion of fatality cases in which the military law enforcement system conducted a criminal investigation is extremely low. Contrary to the military’s official investigation policy, immediate investigations were launched in less than half of cases involving a fatality (46%), and the time taken to decide whether to launch an investigation was excessively long: 10 months on average. Fatality cases that were actually investigated resulted in, as noted, to an almost negligible indictment rate, and the overall processing times in these cases reached, on average, a little more than two years (746 days).

The killing of members of the Odeh family in March 2026 offers a stark example. On the day of the incident, an undercover Border Police unit opened fire at a passing car. The officers later claimed they fired after the car failed to stop for a flashlight signal. A couple and their two children, ages five and seven, were killed on the spot, and one of the two surviving children was beaten by a member of the Israeli armed forces immediately after the shooting. Although an investigation was formally opened, according to media reports the Department of Police Investigations chose not to question the implicated officers and took no other steps to advance the investigation even a week after the incident, nor, as far as is known, since.

For further reading and ongoing updates:

B’Tselem, Fatalities and house demolitions database

Yesh Din, Data Sheet: Duration of processing complaints concerning Israeli soldiers’ offenses against Palestinians in the West Bank – 2016-2025 data, December 2025

Displacement, destruction and looting as part of military operations

According to UN data from January 2026, more than 33,000 residents of the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur a-Shams refugee camps, who were forced out of their homes during the large-scale military operation in the northern West Bank at the beginning of 2025 and the intensive military activity in the city of Nablus in the summer of 2025, remain displaced. The operations, which the Israeli government said were designed to eliminate terrorist cells in the area, resulted in the deaths and injuries of women, elderly people, and children and the forced displacement of tens of thousands of residents from their homes. The military deliberately and systematically destroyed homes, including entire neighborhoods, and decimated civilian infrastructure and roads on a scale that has made returning to many of the affected neighborhoods impossible without major reconstruction.

IDPs are facing a deep humanitarian crisis, and live without shelter, access to property and essential items, and regular access to education and healthcare systems. Most West Bank IDPs have become dependent on relief. In September 2025, ACRI filed a petition demanding to allow displaced refugee camp residents to return to their homes. The petition stressed that forced displacement is a war crime, particularly when carried out on a mass scale, for a long duration, and in violation of the conditions and limitations established under international law. In its response, while asserting that the military did not force residents to leave, the State also argued that security needs required that they remain displaced, even though it is widely known that the bulk of the fighting was done in the first months of the operation.

The petition is still pending, and the State is expected to provide an update on when residents may return in July 2026 (ACRI is trying to push up the schedule). In the meantime, an investigation by Bimkom (Hebrew), which included a close examination of aerial photographs, map analysis, and field documentation of Tulkarm Refugee Camp before and after the demolitions, revealed that the destruction was more extensive than planned and included structures that had not been marked in advance for demolition. The investigation also found that the damage to infrastructure was so severe and extensive that there is serious doubt as to whether a return to living in the area would be possible in the near future.

Additionally, human rights organizations received testimonies and visual documentation of Palestinian homes being seized by the military in various parts of the West Bank amid airstrikes by Iran, and of families being removed from their homes despite the danger posed by missiles. Palestinian communities in the West Bank are not protected from aerial attacks, and missile strikes and interceptor fragments posing a real danger. Nonetheless, homes were seized, and families were either forced out without being given any other option for protection or confined to a single room while Israeli armed forces occupied them and did as they pleased.

Reports of looting in the West Bank and of Israeli soldiers or police officers taking items and cash from Palestinians continue. Fueled by the normalization of looting during military operations in Gaza, the trend is on the rise, with similar conduct now also documented in Lebanon. In the West Bank, looting takes place under the cover of checkpoint security checks and night raids on homes, both of which are carried out pursuant to military legislation that grants soldiers and police officers almost unlimited powers. This framework, which lacks oversight and protection processes, enables abuses of power and looting, which constitutes a war crime.

Further reading:

Bimkom-Planning and Human Rights, Architecture of Destruction and Control (Hebrew)

Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Allow the Displaced to Return to Refugee Camps in the Northern West Bank, Increasing Violations of Palestinians’ Rights in the West Bank Under Cover of War, March 8, 2025

Yesh Din, Uniformed Theft: Pillage of Palestinians’ Money and Property by Israeli Soldiers and Police Officers in the West Bank, August 2025

Unlawful arrests by the military

The Human Rights Defenders Fund (HRDF) has reported numerous cases in which the military arrests or detains Palestinian civilians, including Palestinian human rights activists, illegally and without cause, violating their fundamental rights to liberty, due process, and freedom from torture, as well as from degrading and inhuman treatment. The practice also violates both domestic and international law. Though particularly prevalent in the South Hebron Hills, the practice has been documented elsewhere in the West Bank.

Between November 2025 and the end of February 2026, the HRDF documented 89 cases of unlawful arrests; 46 (more than 50% of all cases) took place in February 2026 alone. In 60 of the cases (67%), the arrests occurred as a follow-up to settler aggression toward the Palestinians arrested, involving physical violence or invasions into their land. In 10 of the documented cases, Israeli armed forces detained the Palestinians who called the police to report settler violence.

These arrests and detentions are not reported to the police or recorded in any other way, and the apprehended individuals are ultimately released hours or days later, with no investigation or charges. This practice raises serious concerns that detention powers are being abused and illegally exploited for purposes of intimidation and harassment. Moreover, settlers are often involved in apprehending the Palestinians and, worse still, setters will sometimes seize and detain Palestinians themselves, at times while wearing military uniforms and/or while being escorted by a soldier.

Among the cases documented by HRDF are repeat arrests and child arrests. Palestinians held by soldiers or settlers often suffer degrading treatment and violence, and there have been cases in which their release effectively consisted of being dumped from a military jeep.For example, on March 11, 2026, Parents Against Child Detention reported (Hebrew) the arrest of a 14-year-old boy by soldiers, after settlers from a nearby outpost harassed youths from his village and accused him of throwing a stone at them. The incident was reported in real time by human rights activists present at the scene, who testified that soldiers took the boy to a nearby post and did not allow his father to accompany him. The boy was beaten and released about an hour later.

In January 2026, ACRI, HRDF, Haqel – In Defense of Human Rights, and HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual contacted senior military officials about this matter. Despite repeated appeals in February and March, no response was received, and the practice continued. Accordingly, in mid-May the four organizations, together with five individual Palestinian petitioners, filed an HCJ petition demanding that the military cease this policy.

Further reading:

Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Palestinians Detained By Soldiers Without Cause, January 2026

Use of closed military zone orders

Closed military zone orders are frequently issued in areas around Palestinian communities following settler violence. Ostensibly a tool to reduce tension and violence, they often play into the attackers’ hands: while they freely violate the orders, protective presence activists and the media are removed from the area. Closure orders are usually issued on site and result in the removal of the last protections for local Palestinian communities.

For example, in early March 2026, Israeli activists, including from Torat Tzedek and Combatants for Peace, were removed by the military pursuant to an order prohibiting the presence of Israeli civilians. Meanwhile, settlers ignored the order without repercussions and intensified their attacks on the Ka’abaneh community, which lies on the outskirts of the village of Duma, ultimately displacing the small hamlet. Torat Tzedek has reported that soldiers enforcing the orders have looked for activists in Palestinians’ homes, and asked family members about specific activists by name.

Moreover, Israeli activists and Palestinian residents report that the orders themselves often lead to the forcible transfer of families, who flee once they realize that their lives, flocks, and meager property are in greater danger. For instance, after the closure order was issued in the Duma area, three families left their homes in Khirbet al-Marjam, another local village. According to a report from the community, after they left, settlers destroyed one of their houses, and military forces called to the scene made no arrests.

Although closing the area did not prevent settlers from remaining in it and attacking local Palestinian communities, the closure order was extended for another year, until April 2027, an unusually long period for such orders.

Closure orders also prevent staging non-violent protest activities against the occupation, and deny Palestinians access to their land, negatively impacting their livelihoods and violating their property rights and freedom of movement. Settlers freely breach these orders, access these lands and do as they please in them.

At a January 2026 hearing on several petitions filed by HRDF, the HCJ held that closed military zone orders have generally been overused beyond legal justification. The justices demanded that clear justifications and an evidentiary basis demonstrating an immediate security threat be provided for all future closed military zone orders. The Court also stated that when an order is intended to deny access to human rights activists, it must be based on tangible intelligence showing that the activists intend to disrupt public order. While the specific orders challenged in the petitions could not be retroactively revoked, the justices cautioned that if arbitrary and unjustified closed military zone declarations without evidence of an immediate security need persisted, further judicial intervention may be warranted. Unfortunately, in the roughly two months following the judgment, HRDF documented about 15 closed military zone orders issued in contravention of the HCJ’s position. A letter on the matter addressed to the State Attorney’s Office and the military elicited a response that disregarded the circumstances of the cases described and claimed that, in the State’s view, the HCJ had permitted the use of the orders.

Further reading:

Human Rights Defenders Fund, Legal Win: HRDF Petition Leads Supreme Court to Curb Arbitrary Closed Military Zone Orders, January 26, 2026

Times of Israel, Year-long IDF closure said to bolster settler violence by only barring Palestinians’ allies, April 15, 2026