Recent measures adopted by the Israeli authorities are being described by rights advocates as a decisive departure from the framework that has governed the occupied territories since 1967. Legal and administrative changes introduced over recent weeks are seen as consolidating permanent control across the West Bank, including areas previously designated for limited Palestinian administration, as well as East Jerusalem, effectively transforming a temporary occupation into de facto sovereignty.

Human rights observers argue that developments in both the West Bank and Gaza form part of a broader genocidal war marked by mass civilian deaths, the destruction of essential infrastructure, prolonged siege conditions and the deliberate obstruction of mediation efforts. In the West Bank, accelerated settlement expansion, the construction of tunnels in sensitive neighbourhoods and the stripping of authority from Palestinian municipalities are viewed as measures designed to extinguish any remaining political pathway towards statehood.

Particular concern has been raised over new land policies that facilitate the transfer of Palestinian property through financial pressure, legal manipulation and administrative coercion. Steps such as opening land registries to public access, dismantling long-standing legal barriers to land sales, easing restrictions on settler purchases and imposing heavy fines on Palestinian communities under environmental pretexts are described as an organised strategy of forced demographic change.

Critics say these moves amount to the quiet dismantling of previous agreements, replacing them with a system of permanent administrative annexation without formal declaration. The transfer of planning and construction powers in areas of high religious and historical sensitivity, including parts of Hebron and its Old City, is viewed as removing these zones from any future Palestinian authority and converting them into settlement-controlled municipalities under military protection.

The latest decisions, approved by Israel’s security cabinet, also allow for the demolition of Palestinian-owned buildings in areas previously exempt from such actions. Observers warn that these policies openly defy international humanitarian law, relevant UN resolutions and advisory opinions of international courts, placing renewed responsibility on the international community to pursue accountability through legal and diplomatic channels.