Over the past three years, attention has been focused on Gaza, Lebanon, Iran and somewhat on Syria and Yemen. Little attention has been focused on the West Bank. While no one in the Israeli government planned this situation, the cover of war has been a bonus for those elements of the current Israeli regime which sees its mission to make sure that area C, the 65% of the of the West Bank under Israeli military and civil administration, is vacant of Palestinians and ultimately annexed.  Annexation, however, is not some distant goal to be achieved at the right moment when all the stars are aligned, annexation is happening daily. Some data from 2025 gathered by Peace Now:

86 new outposts established

54 new official settlements approved by the government

Almost 30,000 new housing units were approved by the Israeli Higher Planning Council

www.peacenow.org.il/en/summary-of-2025-in-settlements

Even more disturbing has been the ongoing violence against Palestinians from Jewish settlers.  The United Nations for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported that in 2025, there were 1,800 settler attacks that resulted in casualties or property damage to Palestinians in about 280 communities across the West Bank. Settler violence resulted in at least 9 Palestinian deaths, but the cause of another 6 deaths is uncertain. https://www.ochaopt.org/content/humanitarian-situation-update-352-west-bank

In many cases, Israeli security forces are not present or are present but do not intervene.  According to Yesh Din-Volunteers for Human Rights, an Israeli human rights organization, over 90% of investigations into crimes by Jewish settlers against Palestinians end without an indictment. https://www.yesh-din.org/en/data-sheet-law-enforcement-on-israeli-civilians-in-the-west-bank-settler-violence-2005-2025/

Between January and December 2025, despite the large number of settler attacks on Palestinians, I only found a record of 7 arrests of Jewish settlers. In fact,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)