West Bank

The Education Cluster recorded 185 education-related incidents across the West Bank and East Jerusalem between July and September 2026, marking a 99% increase compared to the same period in 2025. These disruptions affected 149 schools, 26,475 students, and 1,512 staff members. The start of the 2026/27 academic year in September saw a sharp concentration of activity, with 168 incidents reported that month alone—a 205% rise over September 2025. Access restrictions accounted for 134 of the quarterly incidents, while reports of settler violence climbed to 31, up from six the previous year. Geographically, Nablus and Salfit were the most affected areas, and incidents within Area C rose to 48% of the total. The cumulative effect resulted in the loss of over 52,709 class-minutes, further straining the ability of schools to maintain consistent instruction and address existing learning gaps.

Ahead of Israel's parliamentary elections on 27 October, Amnesty International has expressed concerns that the focus on the elections may deflect attention from Israel's ongoing human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territory, Lebanon, and Syria. The organization's Senior Director, Erika Guevara Rosas, stated that electoral candidates have exploited anti-Palestinian sentiment and threatened to step up human rights violations. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip continue to face displacement, home demolitions, and restrictions on their livelihoods. In Gaza, civilians are trapped in a state of protracted displacement and despair, with limited access to food, bread, and healthcare. Israel's impunity for decades of atrocity crimes has fueled further crimes against Palestinians, including deadly attacks in Lebanon and Syria. Amnesty International is calling on states with influence over Israel to use diplomatic and economic measures to protect Palestinian rights and hold Israel accountable for its human rights abuses.

Settler violence in the occupied West Bank escalated over the weekend, with masked Israeli settlers attacking Palestinian farmers harvesting olives near Abu Falah on 16 October. The assault involved stone‑throwing, slingshots, arson, and the theft of equipment. Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was struck, had her gear stolen, and was hospitalized with multiple injuries. On 19 October, a group of settlers assaulted a delegation of Belgian, French, Polish diplomats, a French mayor, Catholic representatives and Palestinian residents near Taybeh, damaging a Belgian diplomatic vehicle. Israeli police arrested 10 suspects. Amnesty International calls for states to halt cooperation that sustains the occupation, impose sanctions, and support international accountability.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has condemned an attack by Israeli settlers on a staff member in the occupied Palestinian territory. On October 15, a group of approximately 20 settlers descended on the staff member's village in the south of the West Bank, armed with batons, rifles, stun grenades, and slingshots. The staff member was injured with a hand-sized rock launched by a slingshot and required immediate medical attention. The incident is part of a pattern of increased violence and intimidation against Palestinian communities in Hebron and other areas of the West Bank. MSF has called for the protection of Palestinian communities, patients, and healthcare workers.

World Vision’s latest report documents a worsening humanitarian situation in the West Bank over the past three years. Between January and September 2026, 90 Palestinians, including 19 children, were killed and about 2,100 injured, while more than 1,600 attacks were recorded in over 275 communities—approaching the total for the most violent year since 2006. Roughly 33,000 people remain displaced from the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps. Demolitions in Area C and East Jerusalem now exceed twice the 15‑year average, and 925 movement restrictions have been imposed, 43 % above the 20‑year average. Economic hardship is widespread: 79 % of households live below the Minimum Expenditure Basket, 12 % face poor food consumption, and 69 % rely on crisis coping strategies. Essential services are collapsing, with 124 attacks on health care facilities and over 190 water and sanitation structures damaged. World Vision’s response—spanning emergency aid, education, mental‑health support, healthcare and community preparedness—works with local partners, health providers and Civil Defence volunteers to meet urgent needs and build resilience.

A year after a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip was announced, Physicians for Human Rights (PHRI) reports that Israel's prevention of meaningful recovery of Gaza's healthcare system persists. PHRI has monitored shortages of medical supplies, diagnostics, and treatment, as well as limited medical evacuations for critical patients. Since October 2025, PHRI has followed cases of children who died while awaiting medical evacuation due to Israel's blockage of the medical corridor between Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The Gaza Ministry of Health reported acute deficits and depleted stocks of medical equipment in the summer of 2026, with some shortages increasing compared to the previous year. The Nasser Medical Complex ran out of syringes on October 2. PHRI demands that Israeli authorities restore the medical corridor, lift restrictions on aid entry, and allow reconstruction of Gaza's healthcare system and civilian infrastructure.

In a diplomatic standoff over the UK’s planned sanctions on illegal West Bank settlements, the UK and Israel have agreed to a compromise that keeps the British consulate in East Jerusalem operational, though most diplomats will leave. Twenty British diplomats, including the consul general, will depart, leaving a core team of seven to maintain the building and keep the Union Jack flying. UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the diplomats are “temporarily withdrawn” for safety but the mission remains independent and will continue working with the Palestinian people. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar confirmed the consulate’s operations would close today and the British flag would remain. The deal averts a potential spiral of reciprocal expulsions and preserves a foothold for the UK in the occupied territory while the UK holds firm on its sanctions package.

UN OCHA’s latest report warns that from October, Gaza’s daily hot‑meal production and monthly household parcel distributions will shrink sharply due to funding gaps. Over 13 % of Gaza’s population—about 279,000 people—live in flood‑prone displacement sites, and more than 2,300 residents are in unsafe buildings that require demolition. Restrictions on engine oil, spare parts and equipment have cut desalination in southern Gaza, forcing reliance on donkey carts and UN trucks for waste collection. In the West Bank, demolitions displaced 55 Palestinians, including 32 children, in Jinba, and homes in three Masafer Yatta communities were almost entirely destroyed. Settler activity in Jalud damaged properties, and settler violence disrupted education in Hebron, Tubas, Qawawis and Khirbet ar Ras al Ahmar, leaving several children without in‑person schooling. The Acting Special Coordinator noted that Israeli authorities have withheld about US$6 billion in clearance revenues, leaving the Palestinian Authority unable to deliver basic services, sustain social protection, or pay civil‑service salaries. He also warned that the health situation remains critical, with widespread infectious diseases amid overcrowded displacement sites and shortages of medical supplies, fuel and overall humanitarian response.

The Republic of Korea has donated USD 5 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to deliver cash‑based assistance to more than 100,000 conflict‑affected Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Under the second phase of the REACH initiative, USD 4 million will provide digital cash through e‑wallets to nearly 45,000 people in Gaza, while USD 1 million will supply electronic food vouchers to 56,000 people in the West Bank, giving families flexibility to purchase food and essentials. The contribution builds on the first phase, during which Korea supplied USD 15 million to help WFP assist over 620,000 people in Gaza and 130,000 in the West Bank. Across both phases, Korea has committed USD 20 million, enabling WFP to support roughly 850,000 people amid rising food insecurity, unemployment, and displacement in Palestine.

A ReliefWeb snapshot based on a survey of 29 NGOs covering March‑August 2026 reports that Israeli policies in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are deepening a humanitarian crisis. State‑backed settler violence is rising, targeting Palestinian homes, roads and land, while military raids, settlement expansion, demolitions and movement restrictions consolidate annexation and force communities off their land. Humanitarian organisations are experiencing higher needs but shrinking operational space: staff face attacks, routes are closed or too dangerous, and many NGOs must delay, relocate, scale back or suspend services. Budgets are shrinking as donors cut funding, and the approach of Israeli elections is not curbing these dynamics, emboldening settlers and entrenching impunity.

On 23 September, Israeli forces and the Civil Administration used bulldozers to demolish dozens of Palestinian homes, agricultural infrastructure, water tanks and solar panels in Khirbet Jinba, a village in the South Hebron Hills. Three additional villages in Msafer Yatta were almost entirely destroyed earlier in September 2026, bringing the total to 12 villages that house more than 1,100 Palestinians who have lived on the land for generations. The demolitions displaced 1,500 people in the West Bank in 2026, representing over a third of the 4,300 Palestinians forcibly displaced that year. UN Human Rights – OPT’s Ajith Sunghay called the forcible transfer a war crime and warned that the actions violate international law’s prohibition of racial segregation and apartheid. The area, designated as “Firing Zone 918” in the 1980s, continues to see Israeli settlement expansion, with at least 11 outposts operating illegally within the zone.