Update: Alarming Escalation of Israel’s Military Operations in the West Bank During its 12 Day War with Iran
While international attention has largely shifted toward Israel’s war with Iran over the past few days, the reality on the ground in the occupied West Bank demonstrates that Israel has accelerated its annexation policies during this time. Israel’s military and settler violence against Palestinians not only continues, but has intensified in the midst of the grave regional developments.
These latest developments echo aggravated patterns documented in our report on Settler Violence as a tool of forcible displacement in the West Bank, which identifies settler aggression as an unofficial yet strategic tool of displacement supported by the Israeli government. The report highlights how state institutions legalize land grabs through selective military and civil laws, while settlers carry out daily acts of deliberate and calculated violence to forcibly displaced Palestinian communities across the West Bank, with impunity.
At the onset of Israel’s regional escalation in June, the Israeli government declared a nationwide state of war. For Palestinians in the West Bank, this translated into immediate lockdowns: forced closures, new military checkpoints, roadblocks at nearly every village and city entrance, and the installation of additional military gates across the oPt. These measures have severely disrupted daily life, further restricting access to education, healthcare, and employment, while reinforcing the fragmentation of Palestinian land and its people.
Within this context, Israeli military incursions and settler violence have intensified across various West Bank communities. For example:
- On 25 and 28 of June 2025, six Palestinians were killed across Ramallah, Nablus, and Duma; some by settlers, others during Israeli military raids[1,2].
- Between early and mid-June, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded dozens of settler attacks and army raids across Hebron, Jenin, and the northern Jordan Valley[3].
- Between 6 to 18 of June 2025, nearly 85 structures were demolished in Tulkarim’s refugee camp[4]. In Nur Shams refugee camp, at least 22 buildings and 56 housing units were demolished, aggravating the number of displaced Palestinians to 42,000.
- On 22 June 2025, Israeli occupation forces detained at least 26 Palestinians in overnight raids across the occupied West Bank[5]. And another 23 Palestinian citizens at dawn of 28 June, 2025 during large-scale raids across several areas in Nablus, Qalqilya, and Hebron[6].
Israel’s extensive militarization of the occupied West Bank constitutes a clear violation of international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law. This is particularly pressing in the wake of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) advisory opinion issued in July 2024, regarding the legal consequences of Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The Court concluded that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) is unlawful, and must be brought to an end. As such, Israel’s prolonged occupation, and the policies sustaining it, stand in a flagrant violation of the core principles of international humanitarian law, as confirmed by the ICJ. In this legal context, Israel’s intensifying military entrenchment—including night raids, roadblocks, curfews, the use of live ammunition against civilians, and the deployment of advanced surveillance and weapons systems—represents not only a continuation but a deliberate escalation of an illegal and prolonged occupation.
As the escalated militarized setting takes over the West Bank, it has caused aggravated violations of fundamental rights, including the right to life, liberty, and security of person under the pretext of “security”. Israel’s militarization of the oPt cannot be justified under international law as a measure of self-defense or temporary necessity. Instead, such practices amount to the systematic denial of Palestinian rights and are inconsistent with Israel’s obligations as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The ICJ’s advisory opinion reinforces that the international community has a clear mandate to act, as the continued impunity for such manifestly illegal practices undermines the entirety of the international legal system. Upholding international law requires urgent and concrete steps to bring an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation and militarization of the West Bank.