In 2024, Israel illegally seized 23.7 km² (9.15 square miles) of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, as part of its ongoing war on Gaza.
That’s more than the land area it has occupied in the last 20 years combined.
On July 2, Israeli authorities announced the largest seizure in more than 30 years: 12.7 square kilometers (4.9 square miles) in the Jordan Valley.
It is the latest in a series of land grabs announced this year by Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who oversees settlement planning.
According to Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog, Israel has seized more than 50 square kilometers of Palestinian land since 1998.
In this visual explainer, Tel Aviv Tribune dissects the land stolen from Palestinians by Israel.
1917 – Palestine before the British Mandate
When Ottoman rule over the Levant ended, Jews owned about 3% of Palestinian territory.
During World War I, Britain made deals to gain support from various groups in the Middle East. The most notable was the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which promised “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”
The Mandate facilitated Jewish immigration from Europe to Palestine from the 1910s to the 1940s, increasing the Jewish population of Palestine to 33% by 1947.
Historical Palestine measured 26,790 km², roughly the size of Haiti (27,750 km²). Divided into 100 squares, it would look like this:
1948 – Nakba
On May 14, 1948, the British Mandate expired and Zionist leaders announced that they would declare a state, triggering the First Arab-Israeli War.
Zionist gangs expelled about 750,000 Palestinians and conquered 78% of the territory. The remaining 22% was divided between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The West Bank is the bean-shaped area on the west bank of the Jordan River.
Its area is 5,655 km², about 15 times larger than the 365 km² of the Gaza Strip, which borders Egypt.
In 1950, Israel enacted the Absentee Property Law, allowing it to confiscate Palestinian property whose owners were forced to leave in 1948.
1967 – Naksa
During the June 1967 war, Israel occupied all of historic Palestine – including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem – the Syrian Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.
Shortly after the war, Israel began establishing settlements in the territories it occupied, violating the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its population into the area it occupies.
Israeli settlements are illegal under international law and are often cited as the main obstacle to any lasting peace agreement within the framework of a two-state solution.
The Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt in 1982 as part of a 1979 peace treaty; other areas remain under Israeli control.
1980 – Israel annexes East Jerusalem
East Jerusalem lies on the Palestinian side of the 1949 armistice line – or Green Line – the generally recognized border between Israel and the occupied West Bank.
East Jerusalem covers approximately 70 km² (27 square miles) and includes the Old City, which contains some of the holiest sites in Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
It includes the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Western Wall, St. James Cathedral and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
On July 30, 1980, Israel claimed East Jerusalem in the Jerusalem Law, which stated that “Jerusalem, whole and united, is the capital of Israel.”
The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 478, declaring the Jerusalem Law “null and void” and calling on member states to withdraw their diplomatic missions from the city.
On the ground, the law has had profound consequences for Palestinians, including further displacement, loss of property and restrictions on residency and movement rights.
On December 14, 1981, Israel unilaterally annexed the Syrian Golan Heights.
Annexation and territorial conquest are illegal under international law.
Oslo Accords 1993-1995
The Oslo Accords, the first direct Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, led to the formation of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was supposed to manage internal security, administration and civil affairs in the self-governing areas for a five-year interim period.
Under Oslo, the occupied West Bank was divided into three zones:
Zone A Initially 3% of the occupied West Bank, but it increased to 18% in 1999. The Palestinian Authority controls most affairs here, while Israel controls external security, meaning it has the right to enter at any time.
Zone B About 22 percent of the West Bank is also governed by the Palestinian Authority, while Israel controls external security.
Zone C This area covers 60% of the West Bank. Under the Oslo Accords, control of this area was supposed to be given to the Palestinian Authority, but Israel controls all areas, including security, urban planning and construction.
2002 – Israel’s separation wall
In 2002, Israel began building a wall that snakes more than 700 km across the West Bank, dividing villages, encircling towns and separating families from one another.
Israel claims the wall is for security purposes, but it does not follow the Green Line. 85 percent of its route is built on occupied West Bank territory.
The two-story barrier runs through occupied East Jerusalem, Area C and parts of Area B, occupying more than 500 square kilometers (10 percent) of the West Bank, according to B’Tselem, Israel’s leading human rights organization.
2024 – New land grabs and new illegal settlements
Around 700,000 settlers live in some 300 illegal settlements and outposts scattered across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Finance Minister – and a settler himself – Smotrich was furious about the recognition of the State of Palestine by five countries.
In retaliation, he declared: “For every country that unilaterally recognizes a Palestinian state, we will establish a settlement,” promising a million new settlers in the occupied West Bank to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
Settlements and their infrastructure, including Israeli-only bypass roads, occupy approximately 35% of East Jerusalem and approximately 10% of the West Bank.
In January, at least a dozen members of the Israeli government, including several members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, attended a conference calling for the reconstruction of Israeli settlements in Gaza and the encouragement of the displacement of Palestinians living there.
For the millions of Palestinians under occupation, settlement expansion and land confiscations are stark reminders of their diminishing prospects for self-determination.
