‘Gazafication’ of West Bank as Death Toll Spirals to ‘Highest Level in Two Decades’
Human rights watchdogs and aid groups have warned of a ‘Gazafication” of Israel’s operations in the West Bank, according to the report.
Israel’s military escalation in the occupied West Bank over the past 18 months has resulted in the Palestinian death toll “spiralling to its highest level in two decades,” the Financial Times reported on Monday.
The report noted that after a 17-year pause, the military “has resumed air strikes in the West Bank, carrying out dozens of attacks using drones, but also helicopter gunships and — in at least one case — a fighter jet.”
Inside Israel’s ‘Gazafication’ of the West Bank https://t.co/C6EeIynTKz
— Financial Times (@FT) May 5, 2025
It also deployed tanks earlier this year, “for the first time in more than 20 years” as it launched ‘Operation Iron Wall’ in refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams.
Over 900 Killed
The military action has taken a heavy toll, with more than 900 people killed, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, cited by the Financial Times, “making 2023 and 2024 the deadliest years” for Palestinians in occupied territory since the UN began collecting data in 2005.
Human rights watchdogs and aid groups have warned of a ‘Gazafication” of Israel’s actions in the West Bank, the report noted, as it has “increasingly deployed tactics and weaponry that it has frequently used in Gaza.”
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In addition to the deaths and injuries, the Israeli military has “also destroyed infrastructure, with forces tearing up roads and demolishing houses, and displaced tens of thousands of people.”
The severe restrictions in movement and suffocating economic pressure have also affected the daily life of 3.3 million Palestinians in the West Bank, the report noted.
The Role of Politics
Politics, the report added, is playing a role in the escalated military operation.
“Some of the factors are operational, but there are also political optics to it,” Ibrahim Dalalsha, director of the Horizon Center for Political Studies in Ramallah is quoted as saying.
He stressed that the use of an F-16 against Tulkarem camp “was not only for operational reasons, because they could have used a drone . . . It was like using a cannon to kill a fly.”
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The army launched the operation in the West Bank just two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government agreed to a temporary ceasefire in Gaza in January. This decision was opposed by far-rights groups led by “ultranationalist settlers” Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir whose support Netanyahu’s coalition depends on, the report noted.
The two politicans “are bent on annexing the West Bank, and have repeatedly demanded that Netanyahu adopt a more aggressive approach in the territory.”
‘Disregard’ for Palestinian Lives – UN
Last month, the UN’s human rights office said in a statement that Israel’s killings in the West Bank “increasingly demonstrate an alarming disregard for Palestinian lives with high prevalence of unlawful killings.”
“As there are no hostilities in the West Bank, the international human rights law standards on the use of force in law enforcement operations apply. Instead, Israel now routinely resorts to using tactics and weapons developed for war fighting, including the deployment of airstrikes and tanks,” the statement added.
Khillet al-Dab‘a community in Masafer Yatta has been almost completely demolished. The scale of destruction is indescribable — homes, sheep Shelters , caves, water tanks and wells, as well as solar Shelters , have all been destroyed. pic.twitter.com/fzPRGagxhq
— Basel Adra (@basel_adra) May 5, 2025
The Financial Times also quoted Eitan Diamond, manager and senior legal expert at the Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Centre in Jerusalem, that Israel’s actions were “prohibited” under the circumstances.
“Air strikes and this practice of displacing whole communities and destroying the infrastructure they depend upon — the refugee camps, the roads — this is prohibited in law enforcement operations in occupied territory,” Diamond said.
‘Movement Obstacles’
The Israeli military has also set up dozens of new barriers and roadblocks across the West Bank, the report noted. The number of “movement obstacles” has thus risen to more than 800, it added, citing the OCHA, with short journeys having been turned into “hours-long, unpredictable odysseys.”
Citing activists, the paper further reported that settler violence, settlement expansion, access restrictions and land seizures “have cut Palestinians off from hundreds of thousands of dunams of their land since October 7.”
Louis Theroux’s “The Settlers” is deeply disturbing television. The horror – the daily horror – of what happens in the West Bank gets far too little mainstream coverage. It’s great to see someone with Theroux’s profile expose a new audience to this reality. Watch it, share it. pic.twitter.com/uG8gmndvCu
— Barry Malone (@malonebarry) April 28, 2025
It quotes a local Palestinian as saying that she used to go on day trips to Nablus in the north of the West Bank, but now the risks are just too great.
“Anything unpredictable can be a disaster. Every time we leave home, even if it’s just to go and buy something, it’s like a big risk where God knows what will happen,” Bisharat reportedly said.
The fear now, however, is prevalent “even when you are at home,” she stated, “… if they got away with killing our kids, with no reason, they can get away with anything else.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)