B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak said: “Israel’s complete disregard for international law in the war in Gaza is now being replicated to the West Bank, at this stage mainly in the north. The military activity there, as yet on a smaller scale than in Gaza, is already causing indiscriminate and disproportionate killing and destruction. In 15 months of war in Gaza, the government’s actions made it clear that Israel has no intention of fulfilling its obligations under international law. It is likely to continue blatantly flaunting its duty to protect lives and human rights, and to uphold basic moral and humanitarian standards, unless the Israeli leadership is held truly accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people”.
Israel is applying in the northern West Bank tactics and combat doctrines it has developed during its ongoing offensive in Gaza. This includes escalating airstrikes on densely populated areas, enforcing extremely lax rules of engagement that often result in indiscriminate and disproportionate harm to civilians, and displacing residents from areas the military has designated as combat zones. These actions indicate a process of “Gazafication” in the West Bank—already evident in the north and, according to statements by Israeli officials, expected to expand to other areas.
On 19 January 2025, once the ceasefire in Gaza went into effect, the Israeli government declared it was adding the demand for “increased offensive activity” in the West Bank to its official list of “war objectives”. The addition was merely a formal affirmation of Israel’s treatment of the West Bank since 7 October 2023 as another front in the all-out war declared on the Palestinians since the Hamas attack. In keeping with this approach, the Israeli regime has ramped up its oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank and adopted more extreme measures, including extreme arbitrary violence against innocent civilians, further loosening of the permissive open-fire policy, severe movement restrictions and disruption of daily life, blanket cancellation of permits to enter Israel, and extreme limitations on access to farmland that are critically damaging livelihoods, mass arrests and the transformation of detention facilities into a network of torture camps. See more