Israel’s security cabinet has approved 7 new significant policy and legislative measures that further entrench Israel’s annexation over the occupied West Bank, particularly through settlement expansion, land purchase and registration alterations, transfer of planning and enforcement authorities, and restructuring of governance over occupied territory, including control over key historic and religious sites in Hebron and in Bethlehem. These measures, approved in early 2026, represent a qualitative escalation in Israel’s annexation of large parts of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).
Key Decisions
The Israeli Security Cabinet has enacted a comprehensive policy of restructuring aimed at consolidating de facto Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank through legal and administrative mechanisms. The measures accelerate settlement expansion while transferring planning, licensing, land purchase and registration, and enforcement authorities from military governance and Palestinian-linked frameworks to Israeli civilian institutions, effectively circumventing both Israeli military regulations and international legal norms governing occupied territories. Longstanding Jordanian-era restrictions on settler land acquisition have been abolished, while previously restricted land registration archives are being opened to facilitate settler claims over disputed or unregistered lands. The revival of the governmental Land Acquisition Committee grants the state direct authority to purchase land, further institutionalizing dispossession. In parallel, Israeli regulatory, environmental, water, archaeological, and planning enforcement is being extended into Areas A and B, contravening the Oslo framework and further undermining the already frail Palestinian administrative authority. Israeli officials, including the Ministers of Finance and Defense, frame these measures as “normalizing life” in the West Bank, explicitly rejecting the notion of a Palestinian state and signaling a deliberate, legally and politically engineered entrenchment of permanent Israeli control.
In addition, the new decisions include extending exclusive Israeli control over key religious sites in the West Bank. A particular emphasis was placed on Hebron as a focal point of these measures, reflecting its strategic, religious, and symbolic significance. Israeli authorities moved to transfer planning and construction licensing powers within settlement enclaves in the city from Palestinian municipal bodies to Israeli administrative institutions, effectively stripping Palestinians of any meaningful role in governing their own urban space. These measures were accompanied by an expansion of settler presence and construction in the vicinity of the Ibrahimi Mosque (Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi), a site of exceptional religious importance to Muslims, Christians, and Jews, thereby altering the demographic and spatial character of the area. At the same time, Palestinian administrative and custodial authority over religious and cultural heritage sites was systematically curtailed, undermining long-standing arrangements governing access, protection, and management of these locations. These developments have unfolded amid increasingly severe restrictions on Palestinian access to holy sites and a documented rise in settler violence since October 2023, further entrenching coercive conditions and heightening the risk of forced displacement.
The measures approved by the Israeli Security Cabinet have extended to Bethlehem, directly infringing on Palestinian administrative sovereignty and the existing legal framework in Area “A.” The cabinet authorized the establishment of an Israeli municipal administration for Rachel’s Tomb, granting it authority over public services and daily management, despite the site being located within the municipal boundaries of Bethlehem, which is under full Palestinian control according to the Oslo Accords. This step constitutes a dangerous precedent by imposing an Israeli civil administration inside an area that is supposed to be exclusively under Palestinian jurisdiction, effectively undermining the legal classifications of Areas “A” and “B.” This intervention represents a unilateral redefinition of the site’s status and transforms it into an isolated Israeli-administered enclave separate from its Palestinian surroundings. The decision undermines Palestinian rights to manage their land and religious and cultural sites and paves the way for expanding settler control around Bethlehem, reinforcing the geographic isolation of the city and entrenching a systematic pattern of gradual administrative annexation under the guise of municipal and regulatory functions.
The measures approved by the Israeli Security Cabinet have profound and multifaceted impacts on Palestinian human rights and on any prospects of their right to self-determination and a future Palestinian state, as was stated by Israel’s Finance Minister in celebrating the new decisions. They largely facilitate the already relentless process of confiscation and dispossession of Palestinian land and essential resources. These policies exacerbate settler violence and reinforce a culture of impunity, while simultaneously threatening cultural, religious, and environmental rights. The consequences are particularly severe in Hebron, where Palestinians already face extreme limitations due to the expansion of settlements, entrenched military control, and systematic restrictions on daily life. Collectively, these measures consolidate structural inequalities and represent a deliberate strategy to marginalize and dominate the Palestinian population, creating widespread and enduring human rights violations.
While the recent Israeli decisions constitute a serious escalation in the West Bank, they are not surprising. Israel has, in fact, been laying the foundations for annexations decades before the recent decisions with relentless settlement expansion and accelerated forcible displacement policies across the oPt. Notably, in the aftermath of October 7th, 2023, Israel has shifted the nature of its governance of the West Bank from military-based to a governmental one, marking a major shift towards annexation. This makes the current decisions a natural and almost inevitable outcome of a prevalent culture of impunity, for which the international community bears full responsibility. The recent Israeli measures constitute a comprehensive re-engineering of the legal and administrative system through which the West Bank is governed, encompassing land, planning, implementation, and property registration, extending to Areas A and B, which are supposed to be under full Palestinian sovereignty, crossing unwritten red lines and revealing Israeli intentions without pretense, as reflected in explicit statements by officials such as Smotrich.
Legal Framework and Analysis
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is recognized under international law as occupied territory. Israel, as the occupying power, is bound by the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), the Hague Regulations (1907), and customary international humanitarian law, which collectively impose clear obligations regarding the administration of the territory, the protection of the civilian population, and the prohibition of claims to permanent sovereignty. International law strictly prohibits the acquisition of territory by force (UN Charter, Article 2(4)) and forbids both de jure and de facto annexation of occupied lands. UN Security Council resolutions, including 242, 338, 446, and 2334, affirm the illegality of Israeli settlements and reject any unilateral changes to the status of the occupied territory.
The recent measures approved by the Israeli Security Cabinet constitute de facto annexation by integrating West Bank land governance into Israel’s civilian legal and administrative systems, permanently altering land tenure regimes, and extending Israeli domestic law and regulatory authority into occupied territory. These actions exceed the bounds of temporary occupation, demonstrating an intent to assert permanent sovereignty in clear violation of international law.
The facilitation and acceleration of settlement construction directly contravene Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the transfer of an occupying power’s civilian population into occupied territory. By removing longstanding legal barriers to land acquisition, these policies enable settlement growth and demographic engineering aimed at consolidating Israeli control.
Furthermore, the extension of Israeli authority into Areas A and B contravenes the Oslo Accords, which specifically prohibit Israeli civilian control over areas designated for Palestinian civil administration. This unilateral expansion undermines the interim framework, dismantles Palestinian governance structures, and redefines territorial administration without consent.
The measures also violate cultural and religious rights by interfering with Palestinian custodianship of heritage sites, including the Ibrahimi Mosque. Such interference breaches obligations to protect cultural property under international humanitarian law, undermines freedom of religion, and alters the character of occupied territory.
Finally, the dual legal regime established by these policies, granting Israeli settlers full civil rights while subjecting Palestinians to military law and land dispossession, amounts to systematic discrimination. These practices reinforce segregation, dispossession, and domination, raising serious concerns under international law’s prohibition of apartheid and reflecting an entrenched structure of control over the Palestinian population.
These principles were authoritatively reaffirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In its 2004 Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Court confirmed that the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, remains occupied territory. In its 2024 Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the ICJ determined that Israel’s prolonged occupation, combined with systematic settlement expansion, annexationist measures, and discriminatory governance, has rendered the occupation unlawful. The Court found that Israel’s policies demonstrate an intent to permanently control and integrate the territory, amounting to de facto annexation, and violate the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. The ICJ also underscored that all states have an obligation not to recognize as lawful, nor render aid or assistance to, situations arising from these illegal acts.
International Responsibility
Under international law, Israel bears full responsibility for all violations arising from the measures it has enacted, including land confiscation, settlement expansion, and the imposition of a dual legal system in the occupied West Bank. Third states have a clear obligation not to recognize, support, or legitimize any unlawful situation resulting from de facto annexation, while international organizations must refrain from actions that enable or normalize these policies. Failure by the international community to respond decisively risks consolidating an illegal situation on the ground, further eroding Palestinian rights and undermining the integrity of the international legal order, including the principles of sovereignty, non-acquisition of territory by force, and protection of populations under occupation. In the context of Palestine, the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) Advisory Opinion “Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem” (July 2024), the ICJ placed significant weight on the legal obligations on members of the international community to bring to an end Israel’s unlawful occupation of the oPt. Members of the international community are yet to implement their obligations accordingly, which were emphasized in the UN General Assembly Resolution ES-10/24, reaffirming the binding nature of the ICJ ruling on one hand, and setting a roadmap to end Israel’s unlawful occupation by diplomatic, economic, and legal measures by September 2025 – a deadline surpassed without any meaningful action yet.
Allowing Israel to continue violations with impunity represents a serious threat to the enforcement of international law and the protection of human rights in the region. The absence of accountability mechanisms or effective safeguards not only perpetuates Palestinian dispossession and discrimination but also produces worse patterns of such grave breaches and violations, and extends their geographic scope, further weakening the international legal system without meaningful deterrence and undermining the broader rule of law globally.
Immediate international action is not only legally required but also an urgent necessity to halt Israel’s illegal annexation and all of its associated policies, ensure accountability, and reaffirm the prohibition on annexation and settlement under international law.