Key Highlights
More than 1,000 people have been displaced in Area C so far in 2025 due to demolitions for lack of Israeli-issued building permits, the second highest annual total recorded since 2009.
While Bedouin and herding communities historically accounted for most displacement in Area C due to lack-of-permit demolitions, this year, the majority of Palestinians displaced in this context were residents of towns and villages.
The monthly average of Palestinians injured while attempting to cross the Barrier increased from nine injuries in the first eight months of 2025 to 19 injuries in the last three months.
About 60 per cent of Palestinians injured by Israeli settlers in 2025 were in Ramallah and Hebron governorates, with one-third of all injuries concentrated in northeastern Ramallah towns and Masafer Yatta communities.
Humanitarian Developments
Between 2 and 8 December, Israeli forces killed five Palestinians, including one child, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or settlers in 2025 in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to 232, including 52 children. Another Palestinian with an Israeli citizenship was shot and killed by Israeli forces in Qalqiliya governorate. During the same reporting period, 42 Palestinians, including nine children and four women, and two Israeli soldiers were injured. Of the injured Palestinians, 25 were by Israeli forces and 17 by settlers. The following are details of the incidents that resulted in fatalities:
On 2 December, Israeli forces killed and withheld the body of a Palestinian man near Umm Safa village, in Ramallah governorate, after he stabbed and injured two soldiers when he was stopped for inspection at a flying checkpoint on Road 465. Israeli forces subsequently closed nearby checkpoints and road gates in western Ramallah governorate. Additionally, the forces broke into Beit Rima village, the hometown of the man, and searched his family’s house.
On 5 December, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man during a raid by Israeli forces in Odala village, in Nablus governorate, where Palestinians threw stones at Israeli forces while the forces opened fire toward Palestinians.
On 6 December, Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians, including a 17-year-old child and a 55-year-old municipal sanitation worker, during an alleged car ramming attack against Israeli soldiers stationed at Ash Shuhada Street checkpoint (CP 56) that leads to Hebron city. There is video footage documenting the incident. Israeli authorities have withheld the body of the boy. Between 7 October 2023 and 8 December 2025, OCHA documented the withholding of the bodies of 221 Palestinians from the West Bank by Israeli forces, of whom seven were subsequently handed over and 214 remain withheld.
On 7 December, Israeli forces opened fire at a Palestinian vehicle near Izbat at Tabib town, in Qalqiliya governorate, killing a Palestinian man and injuring another. A third passenger was arrested. According to Israeli media, the killed man was a citizen of Israel. The Palestinian Ministry of Health subsequently confirmed that the injured man had succumbed to his wounds. The Israeli military stated that the three Palestinians had thrown stones at Israeli civilians, endangering their lives.
Between 2 and 8 December, Israeli forces shot and injured nine Palestinians with live ammunition while they attempted to cross the Barrier to reach East Jerusalem and Israel, including eight near Ar Ram and Dahiyat al Bareed and one in Beit Hanina al Balad, both in Jerusalem governorate. The monthly average of Palestinians injured while attempting to cross the Barrier has doubled in the last three months, increasing from an average of nine injuries per month in the first eight months of 2025 (a total of 75 injuries) to 19 injuries per month between September and November 2025 (a total of 56 injuries). Since 7 October 2023, when Israeli authorities revoked or suspended most permits that had allowed Palestinian workers and others to access East Jerusalem and Israel, OCHA has documented the killing of 14 Palestinians and the injury of more than 200 others while attempting to cross the Barrier, reportedly in search of employment opportunities amid a severe economic downturn in the West Bank.
On 5 December, Israeli forces launched a 12-hour operation in Qalqiliya city, imposed an open-ended curfew on the Kafr Saba neighbourhood, and blocked three roads with earth mounds. At least one family was forcibly evacuated after their residential building was converted into a military post. Dozens of Palestinians were detained and interrogated, multiple homes were searched, and two Palestinians (including a child and a Palestine Red Crescent Society volunteer) were injured. According to the Palestinian District Coordination Office (DCO), Israeli forces confiscated 50,000 NIS (about US$15,500) and several cheques from a labour union office before withdrawing.
On 8 December, Israeli police accompanied by municipal officials forcibly entered the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Sheikh Jarrah compound in occupied East Jerusalem, seizing UN property, cutting communications, and replacing the UN flag with an Israeli flag, according to an official statement issued by UNRWA. Recalling the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the UN, UNRWA affirmed that the compound retains its status as a UN premises and, as such, the action is “a blatant disregard of Israel’s obligation as a United Nations Member State to protect [and] respect the inviolability of UN premises.” The UN Secretary-General strongly condemned the unauthorized entry into the UN Sheikh Jarrah premises held by UNRWA and stated: “As recently confirmed by the International Court of Justice, any executive, administrative, judicial or legislative action against United Nations property and assets is prohibited under the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.” The UN Chief urged Israel “to immediately take all necessary steps to restore, preserve and uphold the inviolability of UNRWA premises and to refrain from taking any further action with regard to UNRWA premises, in line with its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations and its other obligations under international law, including those concerning privileges and immunities of the United Nations.” Earlier this year, Knesset legislation targeting UNRWA activity was implemented, with the compound subsequently vacated for the safety and security of staff. However, although the compound is no longer staffed or operational, it remains subject to UN privileges and immunities under the General Convention.
These developments follow laws passed by the Israeli Knesset on 28 October 2024 that purport to prohibit UNRWA’s operations in areas Israel considers its sovereign territory, including occupied East Jerusalem, and bar any contact between Israeli officials and the Agency. In late January 2025, international personnel were forced to leave East Jerusalem, following the non-issuance and non-renewal of visas by Israeli authorities. In April 2025, Israeli forces issued closure orders to UNRWA-run schools in East Jerusalem and subsequently forcibly entered three UNRWA schools in Shu’fat refugee camp on 8 May, leading to the evacuation of the schools; a total of six schools were affected by closure orders, impacting about 800 students.
On 10 December, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs, a Palestinian prisoner from Husan village in Bethlehem governorate, who had been detained since June 2025, died in Israeli custody. According to the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), between 7 October 2023 and 10 December 2025, at least 84 Palestinians, including a 17-year-old child, died in Israeli detention, including 54 from the Gaza Strip, 28 from the West Bank and two Palestinian citizens of Israel. In addition, OHCHR has documented that at least five Palestinians from the West Bank have died while in Israeli custody shortly after being shot, injured and arrested by Israeli forces; four in 2024 and one in 2025. As of November 2025, according to data provided by the Israel Prison Service (IPS) to Hamoked, an Israeli human rights NGO, there are 9,183 Palestinians in Israeli custody, including 1,254 sentenced prisoners, 3,359 remand detainees, 3,368 administrative detainees held without charge or trial, and 1,220 people held as “unlawful combatants.”
Demolitions and Displacement
Between 2 and 8 December, OCHA documented the demolition of 15 Palestinian-owned structures for lacking Israeli-issued building permits, which are almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain. Thirteen of the structures were in five villages in Area C of the West Bank, while two were in Shu’fat refugee camp in East Jerusalem. In total, 39 people, including 23 children, were displaced, and 44 people, including 21 children, were otherwise affected. In Shu’fat camp, a family of nine people, including seven children, was displaced; it was forced to demolish its residence and another uninhabited residential structure comprising two apartments to avoid further fines, after having received demolition orders in February and October 2025 and appointing a lawyer to follow up on the case. In Area C, seven households comprising 30 people, including 16 children, were displaced and 30 others were affected following the demolition of their homes and other structures by Israeli authorities in Al Walaja (Bethlehem), Budrus (Ramallah), Haribat an Nabi herding community, Beit Ula (both in Hebron), and Hizma (Jerusalem).
In 2025, over 1,000 people have been displaced after their structures were demolished, seized or sealed in Area C for lacking Israeli-issued building permits. This is the second highest annual number of people displaced in Area C within this context since OCHA began documenting demolition incidents in 2009. Some 65 per cent of all people displaced in Area C since 2009 have been in Bedouin and herding communities (7,639 out of nearly 12,000 people) and the remaining were in villages, towns, cities and camps. In 2025, by contrast, the majority of people displaced by lack-of-permit demolitions in Area C were in towns and villages and 27 per cent were in Bedouin and herding communities (see chart).
On 2 December, Israeli forces demolished with explosives on punitive grounds an apartment located on the fourth floor of a four-storey residential building in Zawata village, northwest of Nablus city. The house belonged to the family of a Palestinian man who is in Israeli custody accused of involvement in bombing three empty buses in Bat Yam and Holon, in Israel, on 20 February 2025. The explosion rendered the apartment uninhabitable and caused damage to the rest of the building. As a result, two families comprising 11 people, including four children, were displaced.
Between 1 January 2009 and 8 December 2025, OCHA documented the displacement of over 1,000 Palestinians due to the demolition or sealing of 215 structures on punitive grounds across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. About 40 per cent of these structures (87) were demolished or sealed after 7 October 2023, displacing 420 Palestinians, including 166 children. In 2025, and as of 8 December, Israeli authorities punitively demolished or sealed 42 structures across the West Bank, compared with 25 structures in 2024 and 37 structures in 2023. In his report to the General Assembly on 20 September 2021, the UN Secretary-General emphasized: “Punitive house demolitions and withholding of bodies may amount to collective punishment (A/HRC/46/63, paras. 9–10), in violation of international humanitarian law. Such measures impose severe hardship on people for acts they have not committed, resulting in possible violations of a range of human rights, including the rights to family life, to adequate housing and to an adequate standard of living.”
On 2 December, Israeli forces temporarily evacuated three families from a residential building in Ya’bad town, in Jenin governorate. On the same day, in Jenin refugee camp, Israeli forces detonated two houses in the Al Ghubaz neighbourhood and burnt a third in the Hadaf neighbourhood, affecting three families. Separately, demolitions are ongoing in relation to 24 structures in Jenin Camp, estimated to comprise over 70 residential units, slated for demolition by the Israeli military on 25 November. All affected families had already been displaced during the early stages of the operation in Jenin Camp that began in January 2025.
Israeli Settler Attacks
Between 2 and 8 December, OCHA documented 29 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians that resulted in casualties, property damage or both. The attacks led to the injury of 17 Palestinians, including two children, all injured by Israeli settlers. More than 200 Palestinian-owned trees and saplings (mainly olive) were vandalized.
So far in 2025, OCHA has documented over 1,700 settler attacks that resulted in casualties or property damage in more than 270 communities across the West Bank, primarily in Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron governorates. This is an average of five incidents per day. These attacks have resulted in the injury of 1,110 Palestinians, including 772 (70 per cent) injured by Israeli settlers, 327 (29 per cent) by Israeli forces, and 11 where it remains unknown whether they were injured by Israeli settlers or forces. Roughly 60 per cent of the injuries by Israeli settlers in 2025 were in Ramallah (250 injuries) and Hebron (210) governorates. The injuries were especially concentrated in the northeastern towns of Ramallah governorate, particularly Al Mazra’a ash Sharqiya, Deir Dibwan, Silwad and Sinjil, and Masafer Yatta communities in Hebron governorate, which together comprised about one third of Palestinians injured by Israeli settlers so far this year (256 out of 772).
Settler attacks, threats, and harassment continued across several governorates this week, predominantly affecting communities located near old or newly established settlement outposts. Incidents involved repeated assaults, raids and damage to residential structures and access denial to agricultural areas. Among the key incidents this week were two incidents that took place in Halhul town, in Hebron, and Al Mughayyir village, in Ramallah, as illustrated below.
On 4 December, five Palestinian farmers were physically assaulted and injured by Israeli settlers near Wadi al-Ameer agricultural area in Halhul town in Hebron governorate while ploughing their land. According to the family, this occurred after the Israeli District Coordination Liaison (DCL) approved a coordination request for them to access their land for a two-day period. Settlers, believed to be from a newly established settlement outpost nearby, arrived in a small vehicle and stopped the farmers. Israeli forces later arrived and instructed the farmers to leave, stating they had no record of the approved coordination. As the farmers prepared to leave the area, settlers attacked them with stones and sticks, pulled one farmer from a tractor, physically assaulted him, damaged a mobile phone, and drove the tractor toward the nearby outpost. The Palestinian DCL recovered the tractor later that day, and the family was unable to access their land the following day.
Farmers in the above agricultural area of Halhul town have faced sustained attacks by Israeli settlers since March 2024, following the establishment of a settlement outpost near their lands. Since then, OCHA has documented 35 settler attacks resulting in Palestinian casualties or property damage in this area, compared with 10 such attacks over the previous four years (2020–2023). The escalation was particularly pronounced during the most recent grape harvest season between July and October 2025, when at least 16 of these attacks occurred, resulting in the injury of 15 Palestinian farmers.
On 7 December, Israeli settlers broke into the residential tents of a herding family in the southern area of Al Mughayyir village, in Ramallah governorate, at night and assaulted an elderly woman, a child, and two female foreign activists while they were sleeping. Settlers used clubs and stones, injuring all four, stole mobile phones and a laptop, and threatened to burn the family and their structures if they did not leave within two days. The two foreign activists were present to provide protective presence following repeated settler attacks in the area. Israeli forces arrived shortly after the incident, installed a flying checkpoint, and prevented vehicular access to the area.
Attacks by Israeli settlers in Al Mughayyir village have sharply escalated since mid-2024, following the establishment of at least four new settlement outposts around the village. Attacks by settlers believed to be from these outposts have triggered displacement of Palestinians in the surrounding area, including the full displacement of Ein Samiya Bedouin community. Since the establishment of the settlement outpost in April 2024, OCHA has documented 64 settler attacks affecting Al Mughayyir, or an average of three attacks per month, compared with an average of one to two attacks in the previous four years. Since the beginning of 2025, 10 of the settler attack specifically targeted a herding family in the southern area of the village, including repeated raids into their shelters, assaults, attempts to steal livestock, dismantling and theft of tents, and destruction of household property. In total, nine family members, including six children and three women, were injured in these incidents, and the family reports near-daily intimidation, threats and property damage by settlers believed to be from the settlement outpost nearest to them.
For key figures and additional breakdowns of casualties, displacement and settler violence between January 2005 and October 2025, please refer to the OCHA West Bank October 2025 Snapshot.
Funding
As of 10 December, Member States disbursed approximately $1.6 billion out of the $4 billion (50 per cent) requested to meet the most critical humanitarian needs of 3 million out of 3.3 million people identified as requiring assistance in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, under the 2025 Flash Appeal for the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Nearly 88 per cent of the requested funds is for the humanitarian response in Gaza, with just over 12 per cent for the West Bank. In November, the oPt Humanitarian Fund managed 128 ongoing projects, totalling $73.5 million, to address urgent needs in the Gaza Strip (89 per cent) and the West Bank (11 per cent). Of these projects, 61 are being implemented by international NGOs, 51 by national NGOs and 16 by UN agencies. Notably, 58 out of the 77 projects implemented by international NGOs 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.
Tha’er Harb looking over what is left of his property after Israeli authorities demolished his home and five other structures in Khallet Al Farra area of As Samu’ for lacking Israeli-issued building permits in Area C of the southern West Bank. Photo by OCHA, 10 December 2025.
