After the 15 January ceasefire agreement in Gaza, Israel swiftly redirected its military aggression to the West Bank, launching the ‘Iron Wall’ operation on 21 January, and imposing harsh security measures across the West Bank. This escalation not only deepens the already dire humanitarian crisis and accelerates the ongoing annexation of Palestinian land, but also underscores the entrenched impunity that allows Israel to perpetuate systematic violations without consequences.
At the same time, U.S. President Donald Trump has irresponsibly advocated for the forced displacement of Gazans to Egypt and Jordan, further normalizing the dangerous rhetoric of ethnic cleansing as a viable policy. By shifting its attacks rather than respecting its obligations to end apartheid and occupation, Israel reinforces its impunity and the reality that unwavering support it receives from powerful states such as the US will continue to cause the mass death and suffering of Palestinians under the unrelenting violence and deprivation of its occupation.
‘Israel’s assault on the West Bank following the ceasefire in Gaza perpetuate the same system of oppression that has defined its rule over Palestinians for decades. The violence, dispossession, and impunity did not begin on October 7, 2023, nor will it end with this fragile, temporary ceasefire. Israel’s military occupation has entrenched a regime of apartheid that has systematically denied Palestinians their fundamental rights, including their right to life and self-determination. Without accountability and an end to the occupation, Palestinians will remain entrapped in a cycle of escalating violence’, said Amna Guellali, Research Director at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS).
Attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, on the rise since 2023, have alarmingly crescendoed after the ceasefire’s announcement. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), over 829 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank between 7 October 2023 and 15 January 2025, with 498 of them killed in 2024 alone. By 23 January 2025, 34 Palestinians in the West Bank had been killed, including six children.
On 21 January 2025, Israel announced the ‘Iron Wall’ operation in the Jenin refugee camp and its surrounding area, which included a ground invasion and airstrikes, in addition to heightened security measures, mass detentions and restrictions on the free movement of Palestinians across the West Bank. As a result, access to basic services has become even more challenging and is expected to worsen after Israel ordered the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to vacate all premises in East Jerusalem and cease its operations by 30 January 2025. This decision followed the Israeli Knesset’s adoption of two laws in October 2024, which prohibit Israeli authorities from having any contact with UNRWA and ban it from working in areas under Israeli sovereignty, set to go into effect in 2025.
Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has implemented a system of discriminatory and oppressive laws and practices against Palestinians, including land dispossession, mass displacement, segregation and draconian restrictions on economic and social rights. The deeply rooted systematic discrimination is now being brutally reinforced through Israel’s latest military escalation in the West Bank, particularly in the Jenin camp and its surroundings, where Israel has intensified raids under the pretext of security measures. These measures include checkpoint closures, night curfews, the sealing off of towns with newly installed gates, and widespread military incursions. The intensification of military repression in the West Bank is accompanied by a sharp increase in settler violence, as state-backed armed Israeli settlers continue to carry out violent attacks on Palestinian communities.
Instead of curbing this lawlessness, the U.S. Treasury Department announced on 24 January 2025 that it had lifted all sanctions on Israeli settlers involved in violent assaults against Palestinians, together with lifting sanctions on organizations involved in the construction of illegal outposts. By unfreezing assets and signaling diplomatic approval of lawless violence, the U.S. is emboldening a settler movement that is the cutting edge of Israel’s colonial expansion and ongoing annexation of Palestinian land.
Israel’s illegal settlements continue to expand, with over 30,000 housing units added in 2023 – a 180 percent increase over a five-year period. By September 2023, approximately 700,000 settlers illegally resided in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This expansion is based on confiscating or requisitioning large areas of land, mostly land that would be characterized as private property but is declared by Israel as State land. According to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry in 2022, approximately 2,000 km² have been expropriated in Area C alone since 1967, amounting to over a third of the West Bank. In its advisory opinion of July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that Israel has annexed parts of the OPT and that Israel’s use of natural resources in the OPT is violating its international obligations by diverting a large share to its own population, including settlers.
Against this backdrop of escalating military and settler violence, US President Donald Trump has recently proposed the ethnic cleansing of Gazans, via forced transfer to Egypt or Jordan, a war crime that both countries have claimed to reject. His remarks are not an isolated provocation but rather part of a broader pattern of Israeli policies supported by several states, most prominently the US, which aim to displace Palestinians and erase their presence from their own land. The rest of the international community, and particularly Arab states, cannot afford to remain passive in the face of such rhetoric and policies. Firm actions must be undertaken to avoid another Nakba and genocide in Palestine.
Operation ‘Iron Wall’ came shortly after the end of a Palestinian Authority-led operation in Jenin camp and its surroundings. Between 5 December 2024 and 17 January 2025, the security forces of the Palestinian Authority conducted an operation against the ‘Jenin Brigades’, a coalition of Palestinian armed groups. Several civilians were killed and over 2,000 families displaced, as access to basic services is becoming increasingly limited, particularly after UNRWA facilities were damaged and the agency had to suspend operations.
Individual freedoms in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT) have also been systematically and increasingly restricted by the Palestinian Authority, particularly freedom of speech and assembly. Rights groups reported that dozens of people were summoned and interrogated, and some beaten, over social media posts opposing this operation. The Palestinian Authority’s intensifying repression has also recently been highlighted in an open letter by rights groups in the West Bank. Political participation is another crucial right neglected by the Palestinian Authority, with the last elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council held in 2006 and the last presidential elections in 2005. Free and fair Palestinian elections are a key step towards any sustainable political solution that fosters justice and peace.
The international community must ensure an immediate end to Israel’s unlawful occupation and apartheid system, and hold Israel accountable for its violations, in accordance with the ICJ advisory opinion of July 2024 calling on Israel to immediately end its illegal occupation of the OPT and affirming the international legal obligation of States to not recognize as legal the situation arising from Israel’s occupation, nor to render aid in maintaining it.
To that end, CIHRS calls on States to enforce an arms embargo on Israel, and to impose sanctions on the illegal settlements in the OPT. CIHRS particularly calls on the United States to reinstate sanctions on the illegal settlements, which were recently removed by the Trump administration. All states should comply with the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant, who, according to the ICC Statute, should be apprehended if they travel outside of Israel and be transferred to The Hague to stand trial.
While an ebbing in violence in Gaza and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners are positive steps, serious efforts towards a sustainable long-term solution are urgently required – one that guarantees the end of the occupation and affirms Palestinian rights, including to self-determination.
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