section_path: Spillover/West Bank and Israel
section_name: West Bank and Israel
paragraph_text: West Bank and Israel
  
  Amnesty International released a report on 5 February 2024 stating that Israel is carrying out unlawful killings in the West Bank and displaying "a chilling disregard for Palestinian lives" and that Israeli forces are carrying out numerous illegal acts of violence that constitute clear violations of international law.
  
  Before the war, 2023 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in 20 years. Violence in the West Bank has increased since the war began with more than 607 Palestinians and over 25 Israelis killed. At the same time, Israeli settler violence further increased to around 1,270 attacks, against 856 for all of 2022. About 1,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced by settlers since 7 October and almost half of the clashes have included "Israeli forces accompanying or actively supporting Israeli settlers while carrying out the attacks" according to a U.N. report. According to the West Bank Protection Consortium, since the 7 October attacks six Palestinian communities have been abandoned due to the violence.
  
  On 19 October, more than 60 Hamas members were arrested and 12 people were killed in overnight Israeli raids across the West Bank. Those arrested included the movement's spokesperson in the West Bank, Hassan Yousef.
  
  In July, Israeli authorities approved the seizure of 12.7 square kilometers of land in the occupied West Bank. According to Peace Now, this was the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords." Israeli authorities also approved plans for almost 5,300 new houses in occupied West Bank. By July 2024, Israeli land seizures exceeded the combined total of the previous 20 years. The following month, the Israeli government approved new settlements in the occupied West Bank, and it was reported that Israeli settlers had taken advantage of the ongoing war to expand settlement activity supported by a far-right Israeli government, including land seizure and large scale settlement plans.
  
  On 7 August, Wafa reported that Israeli forces destroyed the regional headquarters of Fatah in the Balata Camp. On 28 August, Israel launched the largest military operation into the northern West Bank in more than 20 years. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that the operation was a "full-fledged war". Israeli forces carried out simultaneous operations in Jenin, Tubas, Nablus, Ramallah and Tulkarem. In Jenin, Israeli forces destroyed the city's infrastructure and carried out mass arrests of men and boys. Civilians were trapped in their homes and denied access to food, water and medicine. Members of the press were denied access to the city and the army blocked access to hospitals and ambulances. A day later, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for a halt to the operations, and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the operations "must not constitute the premises of a war extension from Gaza, including full-scale destruction." On 3 September, Israeli media reported that the IDF had classified the West Bank as a "combat zone" and now viewed it as the second most important front in the war. Yoav Gallant said that Israel was " mowing the lawn " with its West Bank operations, but that it would eventually need to "pull out the roots". On 6 September, Turkish-American protestor Ayşenur Eygi was killed by an Israeli sniper at a demonstration near Nablus.
  
  On 3 October, an Israeli airstrike in Tulkarm Camp killed at least 20 people. On 13 November, Israeli far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said that with Donald Trump 's victory in the 2024 United States presidential election, Israel was "a step away" from "sovereignty in Judea and Samaria." Later comments by Mike Huckabee, chosen by Trump as the next ambassador to Israel, corroborated the possibility of an Israeli annexation of the West Bank. On 21 January 2025, the IDF said it launched a major raid in West Bank. On 29 January, the IDF said that it conducted a drone strike targeting a group of militants in Tammun, killing at least 10 people.