State of the Occupation Report: Year 59

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This report is presented by 22 Israeli human rights organizations to mark the 59^th year of the occupation. It summarizes a difficult, violent year, during which the Israeli government has continued to aggressively advance policies of forced displacement and annexation, while systemically violating the human rights of Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, and breaching its obligations under international law. At the same time, within Israel the systemic retreat from the principles of the rule of law continues, alongside a persistent erosion of the democratic space.  

The information presented in this report is difficult to read. However, as citizens of Israel we have a duty to bring the full reality to the attention of the public. We hope that this report will serve as a tool to deepen public debate and strengthen demands for change, including in the lead‑up to the elections. You are invited to download the full report or read it online: https://www.occupationreport.org/en.  

Gaza: The Gaza ceasefire agreement entered into effect in October 2025. For two years, the fighting in Gaza involved breaches of the laws of war, reaching the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Despite, and in violation of, the ceasefire agreement, Israel continues to attack population centers, killing hundreds and injuring thousands of residents, and to systematically destroy buildings and infrastructure in the part of the Gaza Strip remaining under its control.  Israel’s tight restrictions on the entry of aid and goods, coupled with the concentration of Gaza’s entire population in less than half of the territory, are fueling a chronic humanitarian crisis.  Gaza’s roughly two million residents live in extreme overcrowding, and face deprivation, fear, and uncertainty. Approximately 18,500 sick and wounded people are waiting for medical evacuation, which is allowed only rarely. Amid the regional war with Iran, Gaza seems to have been forgotten, with no progress toward reconstruction on the horizon. 

West Bank: The Government of Israel has continued to aggressively advance its policy of annexation in the West Bank, in defiance of international law and through the systemic violations of Palestinians’ human rights. Unprecedented settler violence, which is openly and directly backed by State authorities in unprecedented ways, is terrorizing Palestinians and forcing dozens of communities from their homes, helping to translate the vision of permanent control over the West Bank into a reality. By frequently banning human rights activists, Israel blocks the documentation of violations and cuts off non-violent support for vulnerable communities. Israel also imposes numerous movement restrictions on the West Bank’s 3.4 million Palestinian residents, with access to vast swaths of the territory denied altogether. The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, is gripped by an economic crisis increasingly made worse by deliberate Israeli policies. 

East Jerusalem: The Government of Israel and the Jerusalem Municipality are advancing measures for a Jewish takeover on a scale not seen since 1967, placing entire Palestinian communities at risk of forced displacement. The policy uses a variety of legal and bureaucratic tools, such as administrative acquisition of land by the State, the seizure of homes and their transfer to settler organizations, and planning for large-scale construction solely for the Jewish public. At the same time, the government and municipality discriminate against the city’s hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents by providing inadequate or no access to services and infrastructure, freezing almost all planning and construction for their benefit, demolishing homes, and imposing harsh movement restrictions on communities that are trapped beyond the Separation Barrier. 

Violations of detainees’ rights: Israel continues to hold more than 9,000 Palestinians, some of whom are minors, on security charges. Whether they are serving prison sentences, detained, or incarcerated without charges or trial as administrative detainees or under the Unlawful Combatants Law, these inmates are held in inhumane conditions and subjected to violence, degradation, overcrowding, starvation, and neglect, including medical neglect.  

Israel: Inside Israel, the separation of powers, the judiciary, law enforcement, the free press, and civil society are under attack. The adoption of capital punishment, selective enforcement, attempts to constrain Israeli human rights organizations and activists, and the suppression of freedom of expression and protest corrupt democratic principles and erode the space for civil resistance to the occupation. 

The vast majority of the occupation’s crimes and injustices are never properly investigated, and, in the absence of enforcement, violence is committed without fear of repercussions by both civilians and security forces. Without resolute institutional action, the occupation, and the State and settler violence that are part of it, continues to escalate, exacerbating the suffering of Palestinians and corrupting Israeli society.