“While the eyes of the world have been on Gaza, attacks in the West Bank have been accelerating.”
More Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and illegal settlers in Palestine’s occupied West Bank between 2023 and the end of 2025 than in the previous 17 years combined, according to an analysis by aid group Oxfam.
The findings, based on UN OCHA data, come as Israeli military operations, settler violence, demolitions, and illegal settlement expansion intensified following the launch of Israel’s war on Palestine’s Gaza.
The report also found a sharp rise in Palestinian child fatalities, with children accounting for more than one in five Palestinians killed during the 20-year period covered by the data. It also documented the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians, growing detentions, and increasingly restrictive movement controls across the occupied territory.
Oxfam says there are now 925 checkpoints across Palestine’s occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, a 43% increase on the long-term annual average, restricting the movement of more than three million Palestinians.
About 500,000 illegal Israeli occupiers live in illegal settlements across Palestine’s occupied West Bank, while another 250,000 live in illegal settlements built on Palestinian land in occupied East Jerusalem.
