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Author: Leonie Fleischmann, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, City, University of London
Original article: https://theconversation.com/israeli-plan-to-occupy-all-of-gaza-could-open-the-door-for-annexation-of-the-west-bank-256029
Israel’s security cabinet has announced a plan to “capture” the whole of the Gaza Strip. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on May 5 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would remain in the territory indefinitely and take over the administration of humanitarian aid. What his government is referring to as its latest “intensive operation” is likely to result in Israel occupying all of Gaza.
This development should come as no surprise, given previous rhetoric from members of Netanyahu’s cabinet. But the announcement marks a turning point in official policy that could have significant implications.
Israel’s far-right has repeatedly advocated for the expulsion of Palestinians and the resettlement of Gaza. In response to Netanyahu’s announcement, the finance minister and leader of the Religious Zionist party, Bezalel Smotrich, said that there will be “no retreat from the territories we have conquered, not even in exchange for hostages”.
Smotrich envisioned that a successful Israeli incursion would leave Gaza “totally destroyed”, with the Palestinian population left “totally despairing” and wanting to leave the Strip.
Yair Golan, leader of the Israeli left-of-centre Democrats party, criticised the plans for an all-out occupation of Gaza. He wrote on X on May 5 that the operation was approved “not in order to protect the security of Israel, but in order to save Netanyahu and his government of extremists”.
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It’s an argument that has consistently been raised against Netanyahu’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks. The Hostage and Missing Families Forum also criticised the government for sacrificing the lives of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza and spilling the blood of more Israeli soldiers.
Despite this opposition, it is Israel’s far-right politicians who hold the reins of power and appear to be influencing Israeli government policy when it comes to Gaza.
The government’s objectives to eradicate Hamas in Gaza, and shore up Netanyahu’s precarious position as prime minister – as well as Trump’s plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring countries – have given them the opportunity to realise their maximalist dreams. This is not only the reoccupation of Gaza, but also the annexation of the West Bank.
Gaza and the West Bank have notable differences. An all-out war of the kind being waged in Gaza is unlikely in the West Bank, at least at present. But there have been many attempts from various arms of the Israeli system to drive Palestinians from their land there.
Driving Palestinians from the West Bank
At the end of 2023, half a million Israelis were reported as living in the West Bank, compared with almost 3 million Palestinians. As of November 2024, the Israeli Peace Now movement recorded 141 settlements that it said were “officially established” by the Israeli government in the West Bank (not including those in East Jerusalem), with a further 224 outposts established without government approval since the 1990s. These are considered illegal according to Israeli law – although only two of these outposts have ever been evicted.
In 1993, under the sponsorship of the Clinton administration, the Israeli government and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation signed the Oslo Declaration of Principles (also commonly referred to as Oslo Accord 1). This divided the West Bank into three areas: A, B and C. These are not delineated areas, rather – as the Oslo accords map below shows – they differentiate between Palestinian cities and villages and areas under Israeli civil and military control, about 60% of the total of the land area of the West Bank.
Area C is where the majority of Israeli settlers live, alongside, at present, 200,000 Palestinians. Oslo Accord II mandated the gradual transfer of control of this area to the Palestinians, but this has never happened.
Researchgate
Research by the Norwegian Refugee Council has found that, despite full control of Area C being central for the creation of a viable Palestinian state, there are two separate planning systems in place, one for Israelis and one for Palestinians.
Israeli Human Rights Organisation, B’Tselem, has criticised Israel’s planning and building policy in Area C as “aimed at preventing Palestinian development and dispossessing Palestinians of their land”. This is achieved through denying permits for Palestinian construction and demolishing Palestinian buildings, while allowing Israeli settlement construction.
Meanwhile, for decades the Israeli settlers have engaged in intimidation and violent attacks against Palestinians there. This continuing harassment has led to Palestinian communities being displaced. In his recent documentary film, The Settlers, Louis Theroux films and interviews ultranationalist settlers who make it clear they have nothing but contempt for the Palestinians – solely motivated by what they believe to be their God-given right to sovereignty over the Greater Land of Israel.
As the exclusive authority over Area C of the West Bank, Israel is obliged by international law to protect the Palestinian communities. But a report by Israeli human rights organisation, Yesh Din, dating back to 2006 identified, even then, “a systematic evasion of applying the law to Israeli civilians who harm Palestinians in the West Bank”. The Israeli authorities, according to Yesh Din, “stand idly by” as crimes are committed by the settlers towards Palestinians.
2025 the ‘year of sovereignty’
In February 2023, Smotrich was entrusted with administration over civilian life in Area C. He has made no effort to hide his intentions of establishing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied territory.
Unlike in Gaza, the annexation of territory in the West Bank has been incremental and often under the radar. The Palestinian human rights organisation, Al Haq, claims this amounts to de facto annexation of the West Bank.
Smotrich this week said the government would move forward with its plans to approve construction in the highly contentious E1 area of the West Bank. This would include the building of enough Israeli settlements to “bring in a million residents”.
Should it go ahead, it would significantly alter the situation by effectively dividing the West Bank in half and would bury any remaining hope for a two-state solution. In the words of Smotrich: “this is how you kill the Palestinian state”.
Leonie Fleischmann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.