Israel is intensifying a coordinated campaign of measures aimed at undermining Palestinian life across the occupied West Bank, according to a detailed report released by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. The report asserts that these actions are systematically designed to eliminate the conditions necessary for Palestinian collective existence in the territory.
The report, published on September 14, 2026, describes a broad range of Israeli policies and practices that impede Palestinians’ everyday activities, including traveling to work or school, accessing medical care, receiving municipal services, cultivating land, and maintaining social and familial ties. B’Tselem characterizes this as a “dramatic” escalation in attacks targeting every facet of Palestinian life.
B’Tselem identifies five interconnected domains of Israeli policy contributing to this situation: violence and intimidation, movement restrictions, economic strangulation, social and political destruction, and ethnic cleansing coupled with territorial takeover. The organization argues these policies are driven by a consistent strategic framework, with various branches of the Israeli government, led by far-right West Bank civilian affairs minister Bezalel Smotrich, exerting broad control.
The report highlights a process of accelerating ethnic cleansing as Palestinians are displaced from their homes and lands, which are then increasingly taken over by Israeli settlements, outposts, farms, and exclusive infrastructure for Jewish residents. B’Tselem defines “elimination” not only as physical displacement but also as the sustained erosion of Palestinians' institutions, culture, language, leadership, and social fabric.
On the ground, the impact of these restrictions and displacements is illustrated by daily experiences such as the closure of roads and barriers impeding Palestinian movement. One example cited involves Haytham Adnan Murad, a resident of the West Bank village of Sair, who was forced to carry his daughter around a military gate blocking access to their village after her surgery, underscoring the hardship imposed by Israeli army tactics.
The report links the escalation of such measures partly to the aftermath of the Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, but stresses that the ideological foundations underpinning these policies precede that event. Central to this framework is a document known as the Decisive Plan, published by Smotrich in 2017 before he took office, which the report describes as key to understanding current Israeli actions in the West Bank. According to B’Tselem, the plan offers Palestinians three choices: live under Jewish supremacy by relinquishing national claims, leave the territory, or face violent military suppression if they resist.
B’Tselem contends that these ideas have been converted into official policy and practices deployed by various Israeli state agencies with notable speed and transparency. The report also emphasizes that settler violence is no longer isolated private acts but increasingly occurs with the support or accompaniment of Israeli security forces, often with impunity.
In addition to physical and social restrictions, B’Tselem reports a policy of “full economic strangulation” implemented since 2023, which has severely limited Palestinians’ economic opportunities. The group also highlights detrimental effects on education and cultural life, framing these measures as part of a comprehensive campaign to undermine Palestinian society in the West Bank.
The Israeli government has not publicly responded to the report’s allegations at the time of publication. Meanwhile, the findings add to increasing international scrutiny following recent accusations by the British foreign secretary Ed Miliband, who condemned Israeli government actions in the West Bank as ethnic cleansing, marking one of the strongest such statements by a Western official since Israel’s founding.