Humanitarian Situation Update #281 | West Bank

The Humanitarian Situation Update is issued by OCHA Occupied Palestinian Territory twice a week. The Gaza Strip is covered on Tuesdays and the West Bank on Thursdays. The Gaza Humanitarian Response Update is issued every other Tuesday. The next Humanitarian Situation Updates on Gaza will be on 22 April.

Key Highlights

• Some Bedouin and herding communities in Area C fear heightened violence by Israeli settlers from nearby herding outposts after a recent Israeli military order designated large swathes of land near their communities for grazing purposes.
• New closures along Road 60, the West Bank’s main north-south artery, intensify movement restrictions amid expanding road infrastructure and land requisitioning orders, affecting tens of thousands of Palestinians in Ramallah and Nablus governorates.
• Punitive demolition incidents have displaced 68 people so far in 2025, compared with 100 displaced within the same context throughout 2024.
• Displacement in Area C by demolitions due to the lack of building permits increased five-fold between 1 January and 15 April, compared with the corresponding period in 2024.

Humanitarian Developments

• Between 8 and 14 April, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including one child, and injured at least 110 others, including 21 children, across the West Bank.
  • On 8 April, Israeli forces shot, killed and withheld the body of a Palestinian woman from Biddya town, in Salfit governorate, who allegedly threw stones at Israeli forces and approached them with a knife near Ariel settlement.
  • On 14 April, Israeli forces shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian boy and injured three Palestinians during an operation in Al Jalazun refugee camp in Ramallah governorate. During the operation, Palestinians threw stones at Israeli forces, who shot live ammunition and tear gas canisters at the Palestinians. The boy was pronounced dead at the hospital, after the ambulance transporting him was forced to take a longer route due to road closures imposed by Israeli forces near the camp.
• Between 8 and 14 April, OCHA documented the demolition of 44 structures across the West Bank, including 40 demolished by Israeli authorities in Area C and four demolished in East Jerusalem, for lacking Israeli-issued building permits, which are nearly impossible to obtain. This led to the displacement of 65 Palestinians, including 37 children, and otherwise affected 90 people who had agricultural and other livelihood structures or water and sanitation facilities demolished. The majority of people displaced in Area C (43 out of 54) were in As Samu’ town in Hebron (17 people), Bruqin village in Salfit (16 people), and in Nablus city (10 people), all on 8 April. During the demolition incident in Nablus, Israeli settlers were present and stole two dogs, a cat, and several birds from a demolished animal shelter. These animals belonged to a seven-year-old girl who was displaced with her family. On the same day, 15 structures were demolished in Area C of Beit Liqya village, in Ramallah governorate, including two wedding halls, an unfinished residence, a storage space, an agricultural structure, a water cistern and eight other structures that were built on a seven-dunum (1.7 acres) piece of land, affecting the livelihoods of nine households comprising 37 people.
• So far in 2025, in addition to displacement due to operations by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank (see below), displacement due to lack-of-permit demolitions in Area C have significantly increased compared with the corresponding period in 2024. Between 1 January and 14 April 2025, 456 structures, including 56 donor-funded structures, were demolished by Israeli authorities in Area C for lacking building permits, resulting in the displacement of 445 people, including 112 children. This is a five-fold increase in displacement and a two-fold increase in the number of demolished structures compared with the corresponding period in 2024, when 224 structures, including seven donor-funded structures, were demolished and 91 people were displaced, including 46 children. The increase is linked to several mass demolition incidents, such as the displacement of 46 people in Khallet Athaba’ community in Hebron on 10 February and their second displacement on 26 February, when residential tents provided to them as humanitarian assistance in response to the first demolition were demolished by Israeli authorities. In the first two weeks of April, 165 Palestinians were displaced by demolitions due to the lack of building permits in Area C, accounting for more than a third of displacement in Area C since the beginning of the year.
• Between 8 and 14 April, Israeli forces carried out two punitive demolitions in areas A and B of the West Bank, displacing seven people, including four children. On 9 April, a house located on the second floor of a two-story building was demolished in Area B of Deir Ibzi’ village in Ramallah governorate, displacing a woman and her four children. The house belonged to a man who was killed in an Israeli airstrike following an exchange of fire with Israeli soldiers after he opened fire at, and caused damage to, an Israeli settlers’ bus near Dolev settlement, in Ramallah governorate, on 22 March 2024. Seven Israeli soldiers were injured in the incident, one of whom succumbed to his wounds the following day. In the second incident, a home was demolished on punitive grounds in Area A of Tulkarm city on 10 April, displacing two people, including a Palestinian man who has been detained since February 2024 and was accused of carrying out a shooting attack on 2 November 2023 near Beit Lid village in Tulkarm, which caused an Israeli vehicle to overturn and killed a member of Israeli forces. So far this year, 11 punitive demolition incidents have been documented by OCHA in the West Bank, the highest number of such incidents compared with any parallel period since OCHA began documenting demolitions in 2009. Moreover, 65 people have been displaced by punitive demolitions during the same period, compared with 100 displaced within the same context throughout 2024.
• Between 8 and 14 April 2025, OCHA documented 16 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians that resulted in casualties or property damage. These attacks led to the injury of 11 Palestinians, ten of whom were injured by Israeli settlers using stones, sticks or pepper spray, and one by live ammunition fired by Israeli forces during clashes with Palestinians, who threw stones, when Israeli settlers went into the area of Solomon’s Pools, in Bethlehem governorate, during the Jewish holidays.* Among the injured were three Palestinians, including a child, who were physically assaulted with sticks by settlers from a newly established outpost while they were picnicking near Kobar village, in Ramallah governorate, and three women who were physically assaulted by settlers, one with the wooden part of an axe and two with sticks, while working on agricultural land in Al Mughayyir village, also in Ramallah, or grazing their sheep in the Masafer Yatta area of Hebron. Other incidents included an arson attack in which settlers set fire to a wedding hall in Biddya town, in Salfit governorate, and vandalism of over 100 beehives in the Farsh al Hawa area of Hebron city. In five incidents, Israeli settlers threw stones at Palestinian vehicles, causing damage to six vehicles. In one incident in the Nablus governorate, Palestinians thew stones at Israeli settlers’ vehicles, causing damage to one vehicle.
• On 9 April, Barriyet al Maniya herding community in Bethlehem governorate was completely emptied of its Palestinian residents when four Palestinian families comprising 32 members, including 20 children, were forcibly displaced. This followed a series of attacks by Israeli settlers, including vandalism of property, restricting access to grazing areas, and intimidation. Settlers are believed to be from a nearby outpost that was established near Barriyet Taqu’ after 7 October 2023. Since 7 October 2023, OCHA has documented 29 settler incidents in this community and the surrounding areas, of which 22 resulted in casualties or property damage. The four families, who were the last to remain in the area, have been able to take their sheep but have had to leave behind their shelters.
• Between October 2023 and October 2024, 43 new settlement outposts, primarily farm outposts, were established in the West Bank, compared with an annual average of seven outposts in the nearly three decades prior, according to Peace Now, an Israeli NGO. All settlements are illegal under international humanitarian law. Outposts are settlements that have been established in contravention of Israeli law as well, but with the acquiescence and often active support of the Israeli authorities. Peace Now reported that the Israeli government financed settlement outposts with NIS28 million (US$7.5 million) in 2023 and allocated to them NIS75 million (US$20 million) in 2024. In addition to authorizing funding for 70 settlement outposts, Israeli authorities have retroactively “legalized” eight settlement outposts (five of which will be established as new settlements) and allocated NIS7 billion (US$1.9 billion) for road infrastructure serving settlements, Peace Now noted.
• In February 2025, the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA) announced its intention to allocate 16,121 dunums (over 3,900 acres) of land across the West Bank for “grazing purposes.” Referring to the announcement, Peace Now said that this was the first time such allocations have been publicly announced. The six notices cover areas in the Jordan Valley, Salfit and east of Ramallah, including lands previously designated by Israeli authorities as firing zones or nature reserves and areas where Palestinian Bedouin and herding families currently live. For example, one of the land allocations covers at least part of two Palestinian Bedouin communities in the Jordan Valley. In Ras Ein al ‘Uja, at least nine homes fall within the area newly allocated for grazing and nine additional homes are surrounded by it, according to Peace Now. The Umm al ‘Obor Bedouin community, home to seven families, is also included within the designated grazing zone, with all seven residential structures in the community located entirely inside it. In general, affected Bedouin and herding communities fear that the new designations would further facilitate grazing by Israeli settlers near or inside their communities and further entrench the coercive environment generated by Israeli policies and practices that put pressure on them to leave their communities in Area C, as illustrated in the following three examples:
  • One allocation covers land used for herding by Israeli settlers from Micah Farm, a settlement outpost that was established in 2020 near Kochav Hashachar settlement, in Ramallah governorate. Israeli settlers believed to be from this and other outposts in the area have been associated with a series of attacks on two nearby Palestinian Bedouin communities that were forcibly displaced due to settler violence and access restrictions: Ras at Tin Bedouin community that was fully displaced in August 2023 and Ein Samiya Bedouin community that was fully displaced in May 2024.
  • Since the announcement of the land allocation, the Ras ‘Ein al ‘Auja Bedouin community, in Jericho governorate, has reported near-daily harassment by Israeli settlers. Settlers have been grazing their livestock between residential shelters, restricting access to the nearby Al ‘Auja water spring, and forcing residents to increasingly rely on purchased fodder. Between February and mid-April 2025, OCHA documented over 20 settler-related incidents affecting the community. Of these, at least 15 involved the grazing of settlers’ livestock within and around residential homes or on cultivated Palestinian land, resulting in crop damage and the loss of pasture access. These incidents, reflects a broader pattern of heightened settler violence in the West Bank in the past two years, with a current daily average of four settler incidents resulting in casualties or property damage.
  • The Um al ‘Obor Bedouin community in Tubas governorate, which fully falls within one of the designated grazing areas in the Jordan Valley, has been subjected to a sustained pattern of settler violence and access restrictions since 2020, which escalated after the establishment of a nearby settlement outpost in 2022. In 2023, settler incidents increased, including vandalism of herding infrastructure, puncturing of water barrels, and blocking water routes with earth mounds. In June 2023, settlers began fencing off large areas of grazing land along Road 90. These activities continued into 2024, with further fencing near Rotem settlement, the erection of new structures, and settler harassment and intimidation. Combined, these incidents have severely undermined the livelihoods, mobility, and physical security of families in the community, who mainly rely on herding for their livelihoods.
• In line with trends observed over the past year, Israeli authorities have recently intensified movement restrictions and road infrastructure works along Road 60, the West Bank’s main north-south artery that is generally used by both Palestinians and Israeli settlers, except inside East Jerusalem.
  • On 9 and 10 April, Israeli forces installed three new road gates at the entrances to Turmus’ayya town, in Ramallah governorate, and the villages of As Sawiya and Qabalan, in Nablus governorate. Two of these gates were installed along the Road 60 segment between Ramallah and Nablus, effectively severing the direct access of over 15,000 residents in these villages to the main road. At least 15 other road gates are placed along Road 60 in the two governorates, hindering the direct access of tens of thousands of Palestinians to Road 60 to reach basic services and workplaces and entrenching territorial and social fragmentation. In total, since the beginning of 2025, 44 road gates have been newly installed in the West Bank, either as standalone closures or integrated into existing partial checkpoints—29 of these gates were installed as of end of February and another 15 over the past month and a half. This raises the overall number of road gates across the West Bank to more than 300, representing nearly one-third of all documented movement obstacles.
  • On 10 April 2025, Israeli authorities issued two military orders to requisition more than 200 dunums (400 acres) of Palestinian-owned land for the expansion of a segment of Road 60 in the area extending from the junction near Mikhmas village, northeast of Jerusalem, to ‘Oyoun al Haramiya junction in Ramallah governorate. The requisition affects land belonging to Al Bireh city as well as the towns of Silwad, Ein Yabrud, Beitin, Deir Dibwan and Burqa, all in Ramallah governorate. The new orders activate earlier seizure orders against the same pieces of land, one of which dates back to 1983. According to local community sources and field observations, road expansion works have begun in the vicinity of Road 60 near Silwad and Deir Dibwan towns about a month ago. Further north along the same road, in February 2024, Israeli authorities issued military orders to requisition approximately 30 dunums (7.4 acres) of land from the towns of Sinjil and Turmus’ayya, to construct a road barrier along Road 60 that would close off areas overlooking the road and significantly restrict Palestinian access to agricultural lands and homes on both sides of the road. According to Sinjil Municipality, the barrier, the construction of which has not yet begun, threatens to isolate up to 8,000 dunums (over 1,700 acres) of land and directly impacts 13 homes.
• According to data by the Palestinian Ministry of Education (MoE), between 1 January and 31 March 2025, 3,992 incidents involving Israeli forces affected governmental schools and 28 incidents involved Israeli settlers. These include cases where Israeli forces or settlers broke into schools, fired weapons at or in the vicinity of schools, detained students or staff, and delayed or harassed students and teachers on the way to school. These figures mark a 75-per-cent increase compared with the same period in 2024, when 2,274 incidents were recorded by the MoE. Some 33 schools reported destruction of property, with the latest incident taking place on 29 March in Jinba School, located in an Israeli-designated firing zone in the Masafer Yatta area of Hebron, when Israeli settlers wearing military-like uniform and Israeli forces raided the school, smashed windows, desks, and electronic devices. Most incidents (77 per cent) took place in the northern West Bank, where ten UNRWA schools, serving over 4,400 students, remain closed; these include four schools in Jenin refugee camp which have been closed since early December 2024, four schools in Tulkarm refugee camp, and two in Nur Shams refugee camp. The incidents exclude the closure notices, effective in 30 days, given by Israeli authorities to six UNRWA-run schools in East Jerusalem on 8 April, which affect about 800 students who may not be able to complete the academic year.
• On 17 April, the Education Cluster issued a statement to highlight the growing challenges facing students in accessing safe education in many areas of the West Bank and call on the international community to take urgent action. The Cluster noted that the recent closure orders for six UNRWA-run schools in East Jerusalem “set a dangerous precedent that places the educational future of tens of thousands of Palestinian refugee children across the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) at risk.” The statement expressed concern that these closures could expand to other UNRWA schools in the West Bank, affecting over 47,000 Palestinian refugee children enrolled in 96 schools, many of whom reside in camps and other vulnerable settings. The Cluster stressed that UNRWA schools serve as “a protective space and a vital service amid protracted crises,” providing a lifeline and a sense of “stability, protection, and hope in the face of ongoing insecurity and hardship.” Any disruption to children’s learning, it warned, would “undermine their wellbeing, development, and long-term prospects.”*

Developments in the northern West Bank

• On 16 April, Israeli forces shot, killed and withheld the bodies of two Palestinians after an exchange of fire, including a shoulder-fired explosive, at a cave located outside of Qabatiya village, south of Jenin. As of 17 April, a total of 111 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces; of these, over 90 per cent were in the six northern West Bank governorates of Jenin, Tubas, Tulkarm, Nablus, Qalqilya and Salfit. Seven Israelis, including five members of Israeli forces, were killed by Palestinians in the West Bank so far in 2025, all of them in the northern West Bank.
• The displacement of Palestinians by Israeli forces continues to expand to neighbourhoods surrounding the refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarm. According to the Jenin Municipality, nearly 380 non-refugee families were displaced from Hadaf, Jabriyat, and Khallet Souha neighbourhoods in Jenin city during the second week of April. According to Tulkarm Municipality, nearly 50 non-refugee families were displaced again from their homes in neighbourhoods between Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps while over 200 families were previously displaced from the same area in late March. The number of displaced people has been difficult to track, partly due to their continuous attempts to return to their homes, with many displaced multiple times. On 16 April, the Palestinian District Coordination and Liaison Office (PAL-DCO) was informed by Israeli forces that residents of four buildings would be permitted to return to their homes in Tulkarm. Since the beginning of the operation by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank, most people have been forcibly displaced in raids by Israeli forces, following displacement orders announced through quadcopters or the loudspeakers of mosques, and through Israeli military orders passed on to the PAL-DCO. In some cases, residents have been given less than 24 hours to leave and have attempted to return or retrieve their belongings but have been denied access, assaulted or detained by Israeli forces. According to the PAL-DCO, some residents from Tulkarm refugee camp have reported that Israeli forces have been preventing people from returning to their homes by confiscating the keys to their residences.
• On 13 April, the Tulkarm Municipality reported that Israeli military bulldozers had levelled multiple road sections in Iktaba, near Tulkarm city. This has caused damage to about 300 metres of sewage networks, affecting at least 20 families, whose homes have been disconnected from the network as of the time of writing of this report.
• On 10 April, Israeli forces detained several Palestinians, including Jenin municipality workers, near the entrance of Jenin refugee camp and the Governmental Hospital, for about three hours. According to local and official sources, the Palestinian District Coordination Liaison (DCL) had coordinated 24 hours in advance for the municipality crew to remove earth mounds separating the hospital from the western neighbourhood and the Directorate of Education. Despite the prior coordination and the presence of the Jenin DCL head, Israeli forces stopped the crew, detained some workers, and reportedly assaulted the head of the Palestinian DCL. Israeli forces also detained three Palestinians, including a female patient, as they exited the hospital.
• Nablus city has been subjected to daily raids by Israeli forces, both day and night, for nearly a month, resulting in heightened tensions and frequent arrests and disrupting daily life routine. For example, on 15 April, at about 07:00, a 22-year-old Palestinian man was shot and arrested by Israeli forces in the Ras Al-Ein neighbourhood of Nablus city. Undercover Israeli units, using a civilian vehicle, infiltrated the area and surrounded a residential house. As the young man attempted to flee through the back door, he was shot in the leg with live ammunition and subsequently arrested. Israeli forces then stormed the residence, causing significant damage, physically assaulted the man's father, and arrested his brother. Additionally, a 70-year-old man resident of the same building was struck in the head by Israeli forces during the operation and had to be evacuated to hospital for medical treatment. These repeated incursions continue to pose serious protection concerns for residents, particularly given the pattern of arbitrary arrests, injury to civilians, and damage to private property.
• The UN and its partners continue to respond to the deepening needs of displaced families in affected areas in the northern West Bank, including by providing food, water and sanitation assistance, health services, and psycho-social support. Since the beginning of the Israeli forces’ operation in the northern West Bank on 21 January, and as of mid-April, a total of 5,772 households in Jenin (3,498 households) and Tulkarm (2,274 households) refugee camps have received their first multi-purpose cash assistance through Cash Working Group (CWG) partners. In Nur Shams refugee camp, 1,861 households have been identified and referred by UNRWA to the CWG for assistance.

Funding

• As of 17 April 2025, Member States have disbursed approximately $563.4 million out of the $4.07 billion (14 per cent) requested to meet the most critical humanitarian needs of three million out of 3.3 million people identified as requiring assistance in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 2025, under the 2025 Flash Appeal for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Nearly 88 per cent of the requested funds are for humanitarian response in Gaza, with just over 12 per cent for the West Bank. Moreover, during February 2025, the OPT Humanitarian Fund (oPt HF) managed 87 ongoing projects, totalling $62.6 million, to address urgent needs in the Gaza Strip (86 per cent) and the West Bank (14 per cent). Of these projects, 50 are being implemented by international, non-governmental organizations (INGOs), 25 by national NGOs and 12 by UN agencies. Notably, 37 out of the 62 projects implemented by INGOs or the UN are being implemented in collaboration with national NGOs. For more information, please see OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service webpage and the oPt HF webpage.

* Asterisks indicate that a figure, sentence, or section has been rectified, added, or retracted after the initial publication of this update.