PARIS: With Israel preparing to undertake a major settlement project to build 3,400 homes on an ultra-sensitive part of the West Bank, here are some key figures on the occupied Palestinian territory.

Population and settlements

Situated between Israel and Jordan, the West Bank covers 5,655 square kilometres (2,183 square miles). Not counting Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, nearly three million Palestinians live there, along with around 500,000 Israelis residing in settlements that are considered illegal under international law.

The anti-settlement NGO Peace Now counted 147 settlements registered by the Israeli authorities in the West Bank as of the end of 2024.

There are another 224 outposts that were set up without official authorisation. These outposts are regularly evacuated and dismantled by the Israeli security services, though they are also often legalised retroactively.

Three million Palestinians and 500,000 Israelis live in the territory

A record 60 outposts were set up in the West Bank in 2024, almost twice as many as in 2023, according to Peace Now, which links the trend to the far-right presence in Israel’s coalition government. By comparison, between 1996 and early 2023, fewer than seven outposts were set up on average each year.

Violence in the territory surged after the start of the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented Oct 7, 2023 raid on southern Israel.

Since then, at least 971 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including many militants, according to Palestinian Authority figures. At least 36 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or military operations over the same period, according to official Israeli data.

Three areas

Under the Oslo Accords, signed in the 1990s by the Israelis and Palestinians, the West Bank is divided into three areas. Area A is run by the Palestinian Authority, B is under mixed Israeli and Palestinian jurisdiction, and C — comprising 60 per cent of the territory — is totally under Israeli control.

The Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley — a swath of farmland accounting for nearly 30pc of the West Bank, and home to some 10,000 settlers — are mostly in area C.

They were at the centre of an annexation project that was officially put off in 2020 by Israel under international pressure, though far-right members of the current government have revived calls to extend Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank.

Economic difficulties

The effects of the Gaza war have taken an economic toll on the West Bank, according to a joint report from the European Union, the United Nations and the World Bank in February.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has limited Palestinians’ access to its jobs market. Only around 27,000 Palestinians are now employed in Israel or in West Bank settlements, compared to 177,000 before the war, according to the report.

With these workers’ average wage more than double that of an employee in the West Bank, the situation has brought a strong drop in revenues and impacted the local economy.

The unemployment rate in the West Bank was estimated at 35pc between October 2023 and September 2024, compared to 14pc before the Gaza war. The poverty rate has more than doubled, going from 12pc to 28pc as of mid-2024.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2025