The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (witness) has released its latest human rights report titled: "The West Bank Under a System of Isolation: Systematic Violations and Governance Crisis Under Israeli Occupation (2025–2026)." The report highlights an unprecedented escalation in Israeli violations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, within a context characterized by enforced isolation, the fragmentation of social structures, and the undermining of the legal protection framework.
Based on field monitoring, UN data, and international human rights reports, the document records systematic patterns of violations. These include extrajudicial killings, forcible transfer, arbitrary detention, settlement expansion, severe restrictions on freedom of movement, and the surge in settler violence—all occurring amidst a climate of near-total impunity.
The report places a specific focus on Palestinian refugee camps in the northern West Bank, particularly Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarm. These areas have been subjected to large-scale military operations resulting in the destruction of hundreds of homes and vital infrastructure, alongside the forced displacement of thousands of residents. Satellite imagery analyzed in the report indicates the total destruction of approximately 850 homes, a clear indicator of the systematic nature of these operations.
According to United Nations data cited in the report, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between October 2023 and January 2026—among them hundreds of children. Furthermore, approximately 11,000 individuals have been injured, and over 21,000 Palestinians have been detained, including thousands held under administrative detention without charge or trial.
The report further addresses the targeting of Palestinian civil society and international organizations. It documents a series of Israeli measures aimed at restricting the work of human rights and humanitarian entities, including the de-registration of international organizations, the imposition of prohibitive conditions for re-registration, and the criminalization of cooperation with the International Criminal Court (ICC). Notably, 37 international humanitarian organizations were notified of the termination of their operations in the occupied Palestinian territory, threatening the cessation of life-saving essential services.
On a legal level, the report concludes that Israeli policies in the West Bank constitute grave breaches of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL), specifically violating the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute. The report asserts that some of these practices amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and a system of apartheid, as corroborated by reports from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The report emphasizes that the governance crisis and political vacuum in the West Bank—resulting from the intersection of the occupation's structure with the erosion of Palestinian political institutions—have deepened the legal vulnerability of Palestinians, providing a permissive environment for the escalation of violations without deterrents.
In its conclusion, the Palestinian Association for Human Rights (witness) calls upon the international community to uphold its legal and moral responsibilities. It urges immediate and concrete actions, including: imposing sanctions on those responsible for violations, banning trade with settlements, suspending preferential agreements with Israel, and supporting international accountability mechanisms, including ICC investigations. Additionally, it calls for the protection and support of Palestinian civil society and international humanitarian organizations.
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