More Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops and settlers in the occupied West Bank since the onset of the Gaza war in 2023 than in the previous 17 years combined, Oxfam has found.
The charity published a report on Wednesday analysing UN data from the occupied Palestinian territory. It found that 1,036 Palestinians, including 225 children, were killed by Israeli troops or settlers between 2006 and 2022. By comparison, 1,244 Palestinians, including 268 children, were killed between 2023 and last year.
The figures show that more than one in five of those killed over the past two decades were children.
Israeli settler and military violence in the West Bank has surged since the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Israel's consequent two-year war on the Gaza Strip has been described as a campaign of genocide by UN and human rights experts.
Meanwhile in the West Bank, Israel has carried out deadly raids, systematically destroyed refugee camps, forcibly displaced tens of thousands of Palestinian families, armed and emboldened settlers and imposed unprecedented restrictions on Palestinian movement.
Intensifying Israeli army operations and increasing violence by settlers against Palestinians have prompted accusations of ethnic cleansing from Oxfam and other rights groups.
“The mounting killing of civilians in the West Bank is tragic and horrifying,” said Bushra Khalidi, an Oxfam humanitarian policy specialist. “While the eyes of the world have been on Gaza, attacks in the West Bank have been accelerating.”
Almost 46,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the West Bank over the last three years – compared to more than 13,000 during the previous 14 years – due to Israeli army operations, settler violence, demolitions and access restrictions, according to the Oxfam report.
Bedouin and herding communities have also been affected. At least 5,900 Palestinians from those groups have been forcibly displaced, according to UN data.
Saed, 50, was one of many Palestinians forced out of his home in the village of Ein Samia, which was fully displaced in late 2023. “We used to deal with settlers all the time, but over the past three years, settler violence has increased massively,” he said.
“Eventually, we had to leave, and now a settler is staying in my home. I saw him. It breaks my heart to talk about the past,” he continued.
People in the West Bank have also experienced repeated demolitions and destruction, not just of their homes but also of vital infrastructure, including water pipelines, Oxfam found.
It added that there are now a record 925 obstacles that permanently or intermittently restrict the movement of three million Palestinians across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This is 43 per cent more than the annual average of 647 movement obstacles in the preceding 20 years, Oxfam said.
Despite the “ongoing process of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank”, Oxfam said it continues to support vulnerable communities across the West Bank with humanitarian assistance.
The charity called for “an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation and further annexation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem”.
