UN News Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are increasingly being subjected to forced displacement and land seizures, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has reported.
Israeli authorities have stepped up measures to transfer large numbers of people from long-standing Palestinian towns and communities, according to OHCHR’s office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
On 18 June, the High Planning Council in the Israeli Civil Administration issued a directive to reject all building and planning permits submitted by Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, South Hebron Hills, in the area referred by the Israeli authorities as Firing Zone 918.
The decision was based on the grounds that the Israeli army needs the area for “military training,” the rights office said.
In recent months, Israel has dramatically ramped up home demolitions, as well as the arbitrary arrest and ill-treatment of Palestinians and human rights defenders. This is happening alongside intensifying movement restrictions in and around Masafer Yatta, to force Palestinians out, the office noted.
At the same time, Israeli settlers from nearby outposts have carried out daily attacks and harassment of Palestinians, including older people, women and children, to force them to leave.
“The recent directive by the Israeli Civil Administration effectively paves the way for the Israeli army to demolish existing structures in the area and expel the approximately 1,200 Palestinians, who have been living there for decades,” OHCHR said.
“This would amount to forcible transfer, which is a war crime. It could also amount to a crime against humanity if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.”
Some 6,463 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced following the demolition of their homes by Israel between 7 October 2023 and 31 May 2025, according to the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA,
This figure does not include the approximately 40,000 Palestinians displaced from three refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem as a result of intensive Israeli operations in the northern West Bank since January.
During the same period, over 2,200 Palestinians were forcibly displaced by settler attacks and access restrictions.
OHCHR added that countless other Palestinian communities face the same fate of forced displacement. It said that on 10 June, the Jerusalem municipality reportedly issued demolition notices for the entire village of An Nu’man, home to 150 people.
The village, which is located near Bethlehem, was cut off from the rest of the West Bank by the construction of the separation wall and incorporated into Israel’s unilaterally declared boundaries of the Jerusalem municipality. Most Palestinians were not provided with Jerusalem identification cards, effectively rendering them unable to access services in either East Jerusalem or the rest of the West Bank.
“These demolition notices appear to be another step by Israel to compound the coercive environment and forcibly transfer Palestinians from the village and consolidate the annexation of this land,” the office said.
Meanwhile, Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem also face the ongoing threat of forced eviction from their homes and lands. OHCHR said that on 16 and 22 June, the Israeli Supreme Court endorsed the eviction of five Palestinian families, 37 people, from their homes in the Batn El Hawa neighbourhood of Silwan based on discriminatory laws that permit Jewish individuals to reclaim property lost in the 1948 war, while denying Palestinians the same rights.
Additionally, the Israel Land Authority issued eviction notices on 11 June for residencies in Umm Tuba. The 150 Palestinians affected were informed that the land was registered to the Jewish National Fund under the “settlement of land title”.
“These evictions form part of a concerted campaign by the Israeli State and settler organisations, which target Palestinian neighbourhoods to seize Palestinian homes and expand Jewish settlements,” OHCHR said.
The office stressed that these acts violate international law, which prohibits the confiscation of private property in occupied territory, as highlighted by the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last July.
In Gaza, the OHCHR spokesperson noted that women and children, along with older people and those with disabilities continue to face “multiple challenges” accessing food.
Looting of aid convoys is now commonplace in Gaza after more than 20 months of daily Israeli bombardment as a result of a near-total blockade on humanitarian supplies including food, fuel and medicine.
The result is that Gaza’s most vulnerable individuals are unable to access any of this diverted aid, the UN human rights office told UN News.
To date, at least 3,000 Palestinians have been injured in incidents associated with the non-UN aid hubs and looting.
“Desperate, hungry people in Gaza continue to face the inhumane choice of either starving to death or risk being killed while trying to get food,” the UN human rights office explained.
Although the UN and other aid providers still function in Gaza, they are reliant on the Israeli authorities to facilitate their missions. On Saturday and Sunday, only eight out of 16 requests for humanitarian operations were approved, aid teams reported.
“Half of [the missions] were denied outright, hindering the tracking of water and fuel, the provision of nutrition services and the retrieval of the bodies,” said Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the Information Service at UN Geneva.
Her comments followed a warning from the UN’s top aid official in Gaza on Sunday who described dire scenes and “carnage”.
“It is weaponized hunger. It is forced displacement. It’s a death sentence for people just trying to survive. All combined, it appears to be the erasure of Palestinian life from Gaza,” said OCHA’s Head of Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Jonathan Whittall.
Telecommunications have now been restored across Gaza after damaged fibre cables were repaired at the weekend.
“For the first time in days, humanitarian teams have had more than 24 hours of relatively stable connectivity – something that is essential to coordinate emergency relief and save lives,” OCHA said.
But without urgent fuel deliveries, telecommunications “will go down again very soon”, the UN aid wing warned.
“Fuel is also needed to keep emergency rooms running, power ambulances, and operate water desalination and pumping stations,” it explained.
“Right now, teams on the ground are rationing what little fuel remains and working to retrieve stocks stored inside Gaza, in areas that are hard to reach.”
Access to Nasser Medical Complex is also limited because there is not enough fuel for transportation “and health workers and patients fear for their safety”, OCHA continued.
“I n Khan Younis, in-patient admissions at field hospitals increased threefold, largely due to access challenges at Nasser, which also saw an influx of trauma patients and has been overwhelmed since.”
Most of Gaza remains under displacement orders issued by the Israeli military, including another one on Monday for two neighbourhoods in Khan Younis city, reportedly following Palestinian rocket fire from these areas.
“These neighbourhoods were already subject to earlier displacement orders and include two hospitals – Al Amal and Nasser,” OCHA said. “While Israeli authorities have clarified that the hospitals are not required to evacuate, OCHA says the designation is nonetheless hindering access to those critical facilities for both patients and medical staff.”