Humanitarian Situation Update #258 | West Bank

The Humanitarian Situation Update is issued by OCHA Occupied Palestinian Territory twice a week. The Gaza Strip is covered on Tuesdays and the West Bank on Thursdays. The Gaza Humanitarian Response Update is issued every other Tuesday. The next Humanitarian Situation Update will be issued on 28 January. 

Key Highlights

• Since the beginning of January, Israeli forces killed 34 Palestinians, including six children, in the West Bank. These include 12 Palestinians killed since the onset of the Israeli forces’ operation in Jenin city and camp on 21 January. 
• A surge in Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians and their property resulted in the injury of at least 17 Palestinians and damage to multiple structures, including houses, and vehicles over the past week. 
• Severe movement restrictions by Israeli forces across the West Bank, characterized by road closures, prolonged delays at checkpoints, and installation of new gates at village entrances, are impeding Palestinians’ access to basic services and workplaces.  
• Access to health care in the West Bank is deteriorating due to a fiscal crisis and movement restrictions, with 68 per cent of health service points now unable to function for more than two or three days a week, and hospitals functioning at only 70 per cent of their capacity. 

Latest developments (after 20 January 2025)

• On 21 January, the Israeli military announced the beginning of operation “Iron Wall” in Jenin, which included helicopter gunfire and airstrikes alongside ground force operations. Multiple airstrikes were carried out on Jenin city, camp, and nearby locations. The Ministry of Health (MoH) confirmed that 12 Palestinians were killed and at least 50 others were injured. According to the MoH, Jenin Governmental Hospital is surrounded by Israeli forces, with damage to the road infrastructure around it. Patients, medical staff, and companions are trapped inside the hospital, unable to leave. The main roads to the hospital have been destroyed, and rubble blocks the entrance, preventing the delivery of food, medical supplies, and urgent necessities. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported that Israeli forces have obstructed the movement of its ambulances. There are some 600 people, including women, children, elderly and patients who are currently seeking shelter within the premises of Jenin Governmental Hospital, primarily in its yard. The hospital’s facilities are overwhelmed and unable to provide adequate shelter or food for the displaced people. The operation continued in Ti’nnik (Jenin) where multiple houses were encircled by Israeli forces, resulting in the killing of a 29-year-old Palestinian from Jenin refugee camp, whose body was withheld, and the arrest of two others, including a 17-year-old child. On 22 January, operations also extended to Birqin village, west of Jenin city, where Israeli forces killed another two Palestinians.

Humanitarian Developments (14-20 January 2025)

• During the reporting period, Israeli forces killed 13 Palestinians, including two children, and injured 99 others, including 26 children, across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. In total, as of 20 January, 22 Palestinians and four Israelis, including one soldier, have been killed in the West Bank in direct conflict incidents since the beginning of 2025. For more information on casualties and further breakdowns of data, please see the monthly West Bank Snapshot. Incidents resulting in fatalities during the reporting period include:  
  • On 14 January, an Israeli airstrike killed six Palestinians, including a 15-year-old child and an UNRWA staff member, and injured two others, including an UNRWA staff member, in Jenin refugee camp.  
  • On 15 January, an Israeli airstrike killed six Palestinians in the Al Damaj neighbourhood in Jenin refugee camp. Local reports indicate that one of the fatalities was a Palestinian who had been injured during exchanges of fire between Palestinian forces and armed Palestinians in the camp.  
  • On 19 January, Israeli forces shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in Sabastiya village, in Nablus. According to the Palestinian District Coordination Liaison Office and the municipality, Israeli forces raided the village, where a group of Palestinian boys were shining laser pointers toward the forces, who opened fire toward the boys. Local sources and human rights organizations reported that no confrontations occurred during the raid.  
  • On 20 January, one Israeli soldier was killed, and four others were injured by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Tammun, Tubas, during a patrol in Tammun town, in Tubas.  
  • On 18 January, a 22-year-old Palestinian man from Ad Duheisha refugee camp (Bethlehem) reportedly died while under administrative detention (not counted in this week’s fatalities) in an Israeli prison. According to the Palestinian General Authority for Civil Affairs, the man had been in detention since 12 November 2023 and reportedly suffered from an injury a year and a half before his detention. 
• Mass detentions of Palestinians by Israeli forces are taking place across the West Bank. In one incident on 20 January, Israeli forces reportedly detained over 60 Palestinians, for at least five hours during a raid in Azzun town, in Qalqilya. The forces raided residential buildings, businesses, and mosques. Other incidents involving the detention of dozens of Palestinians in villages and towns across the West Bank were also reported. 
• Severe access restrictions are being imposed by Israeli authorities across the West Bank, impeding the movement of tens of thousands of Palestinians and their access to basic services and workplaces. Some checkpoints at main road arteries have been closed, and Israeli forces have installed new gates at the entrances of villages and closed some alternative secondary roads with roadblocks and earthmounds. There are communities, such as Al ‘Arrub refugee camp, which has become isolated from the main cities, paralyzing the daily movement of Palestinians and leaving them unable to access essential services, such as emergency health care, education, and livelihoods. These restrictions resulted in prolonged delays at checkpoints, including of first responders who have reported being stuck at checkpoints for hours. On 20 January, hundreds of Palestinians were caught at checkpoints surrounding Nablus, with some reportedly spending over ten hours and even sleeping at the checkpoints, waiting to return home. In the restricted areas of the Israeli-controlled H2 part of Hebron city, night curfews, detentions and physical assaults at checkpoints have prevented residents from entering or leaving their homes, affecting about 2,500 Palestinians. 
• The Palestinian Authority’s fiscal crisis and Israeli forces’ movement restrictions are gravely affecting access to health care in the West Bank, according to the Health Cluster. A reduced capacity to pay health workers’ salaries or procure medical supplies and equipment has significantly diminished the ability of health facilities to fully operate. According to the Ministry of Health (MoH), 68 per cent of health service points in the West Bank are partially functional and are unable to open for more than two or three days a week, and hospitals are functioning at only 70 per cent of their capacity. Furthermore, checkpoints, closures, and the high rates of denial by Israeli authorities of patient and companion permits to access health facilities in East Jerusalem and Israel since October 2023 continue to severely disrupt access to health care. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), between October 2023 and December 2024, 44 per cent of the 67,116 patient permit applications and 47 per cent of the 61,914 companion permit applications for medical care in East Jerusalem and Israeli health facilities, were either denied or remain pending. These impediments not only delay the transfer of patients to hospitals but also render challenging the delivery of medical supplies and access to specialized medical care. This is particularly true during operations by Israeli forces, whereby the denial of access by authorised emergency medical teams has been regularly documented. Between 7 October 2023 and December 2024, WHO documented 694 attacks on healthcare, affecting 62 medical facilities and 475 ambulances. Compounding these conditions, Palestinian forces’ operations and access restrictions around Jenin refugee camp have entailed the suspension of services at UNRWA’s health clinic and restricted access to ambulances. 
• During the reporting period, OCHA documented a sharp increase in settler raids that targeted 11 Palestinian towns and villages in four governorates, causing injury, damage to property or both. In total, Israeli settlers injured 17 Palestinians, including two children, and two Israeli settlers, including one child, were injured by Israeli forces. During the reporting period, OCHA documented a total of 37 incidents perpetrated by Israeli settlers that led to casualties and/or property damage. At least 30 vehicles and over 440 trees, mostly olive, were damaged by settlers during these incidents. The following are the key settler raids that took place during the reporting period:  
  • In Qalqiliya governorate, hundreds of settlers arrived in buses and raided the villages of Jinsafut, Al Funduq, and Hajja, setting fire to houses and other structures as well as vehicles. When Israeli forces arrived, they shot live ammunition and tear gas canisters at Palestinian residents, resulting in the injury of 21 people due to tear gas inhalation. According to Israeli media, two Israeli settlers were reportedly shot and seriously injured by an Israeli police officer after they attacked him with pepper spray near Al Funduq. In Jinsafut, settlers set fire to three houses, a nursery, a carpentry shop, and to at least five vehicles. In Al Funduq, a vehicle was torched, and houses and a commercial shop sustained damage from stone throwing.  
  • In Ramallah governorate, hundreds of settlers, believed to be from outposts near Shilo settlement, raided the towns of Sinjil and Turmus’ayya on 19 January. On the same day in a separate incident, a group of settlers raided Ein Sinya. In Sinjil, Israeli settlers, hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at Palestinian homes and set three houses on fire. One person suffered burns to his hands while trying to extinguish the flames in one of the houses and three others, including an 85-year-old elderly man, suffered from smoke inhalation due to the fires. In addition, a storage room and four Palestinian vehicles were burned. Settlers also stormed and attacked the residents of one home with stones, injuring two children who sustained fractures. In Turmus’ayya, settlers burned a charging station for electric cars and a livelihood structure, after which Israeli forces intervened and dispersed the settlers. One hour later, the settlers returned and burned an agricultural room. In Ein Siniya, dozens of Israeli settlers, some armed, stoned houses, caused damage to glass windows, and burned three cars and a kiosk. 
  • In Nablus governorate, settlers raided Burin, Qusra, Huwwara and Yatma villages, separately between 14 and 18 January. In Yatma, settlers assaulted and injured a Palestinian with a disability with stones and pepper spray, while he was sitting in front of his house. In Huwwara, Israeli settlers injured two Palestinians with stones and Israeli forces, who accompanied the settlers, shot and injured a Palestinian and physically assaulted another. In Qusra, settlers attacked Palestinian residential buildings with stones and attempted to set some on fire. Israeli forces then arrived and fired tear gas cannisters into the village, injuring seven Palestinians (a mother and her six children) who were treated for tear gas inhalation. As a result of the attack, the windows of six houses sustained damage, as did two vehicles, several solar panels, floodlights, security cameras and other property. In Burin, settlers, accompanied by Israeli forces, raided the village, threw stones at houses and damaged three vehicles. 
• During the reporting period, OCHA documented the demolition of 14 Palestinian-owned structures across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, due to the lack of Israeli-issued building permits, which are nearly impossible to obtain. These include an asphalt road connecting three homes in the Jabal al Mukabbir area of East Jerusalem to the main road and 13 others in Area C. No displacement took place this week, but over 80 people, including 35 children, were affected by demolitions. In one incident on 14 January, Israeli forces demolished nine livelihood structures in Al Khalayleh community, which is located in Area C on the East Jerusalem side of the Barrier, affecting the income sources of 12 households comprising 58 people, including 26 children. The demolished structures included a grocery shop, a fast-food restaurant, a butchery, an aluminium factory, a glass cutting workshop, a marble and granite workshop, a building supplies store, a furniture and material transportation company, and a chicken coop.   

Funding

• As of 23 January 2025, Member States have disbursed approximately US$123.2 million out of the $4.07 billion (three per cent) requested to meet the most critical humanitarian needs of three million out of 3.3 million people identified as requiring assistance in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, under the 2025 Flash Appeal for the OPT. Nearly 90 per cent of the requested funds are for the humanitarian response in Gaza, with just over 10 per cent for the West Bank. Moreover, during December 2024, the oPt Humanitarian Fund (oPt HF) managed 111 ongoing projects, totalling $82.2 million, to address urgent needs in the Gaza Strip (86 per cent) and the West Bank (14 per cent). These include 64 projects implemented by international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), 34 by national NGOs and 13 by UN agencies. Of the 77 projects implemented by INGOs or the UN, 46 are being implemented in collaboration with national NGOs. For more information, please see OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service webpage and the oPt Humanitarian Fund webpage.