West Bank demolitions far higher for Palestinians than Israelis in 2025, rights group says

New figures released by the left-wing Bimkom human rights organization show that a massive increase in Israel’s demolition of illegal Palestinian structures in the West Bank in 2024 continued through 2025, with 96 percent of all demolition orders against Palestinian construction approved last year.

At the same time, the percentage of demolition orders carried out against illegal Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank was far lower, at just 20%.

The new data comes against the backdrop of a massive expansion of Israel’s West Bank settlements under the current government, the approval of tens of thousands of housing units for the settlements, and the establishment of over 200 illegal settlement outposts that are funded by various government ministries and have not been demolished by state authorities.

Alon Cohen Lifshitz, director of Bimkom’s planning and community department, asserted that the demolition data was testimony to these policies adopted by the government — and in particular Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — designed to favor the Israeli settlement enterprise and hamper Palestinian life in Area C of the West Bank. Israel has full security and civilian control in Area C, where all 500,000 Israeli settlers live, alongside an estimated 180,000 – 300,000 Palestinians, according to the B’Tselem organization.

According to Bimkom’s data for 2025, 1,005 demolition orders were issued against illegally constructed Palestinian buildings in Area C, of which 962 were carried out, amounting to a 96% enforcement rate.

These figures are similar to those from 2024, when 862 demolitions were carried out against illegal Palestinian structures out of 946 demolition orders, or 91%.

But the number of demolitions in 2024 and the enforcement percentage rate that year jumped massively over the 2023 numbers, when only 376 demolitions out of 1,175 orders were carried out.

The high number and percentage of demolitions against illegal Palestinian structures is almost certainly a result of the transfer of a swath of powers in 2024 from the Civil Administration of the Defense Ministry to the new Settlements Administration, which was established by Smotrich and is subordinate to him, in order to take control over civilian affairs in the West Bank.

According to Bimkom, 296 demolition orders were issued against illegal settlement structures in 2025, of which 58 were carried out, or 20%.

This represented a small increase over 2024 figures, when 280 demolition orders were issued, and 39 carried out, or 14%.

Bimkom’s figures also show that out of 1,022 planning applications for housing construction made by Palestinians in Area C in 2025, zero were approved.

In contrast, 27,350 housing units were approved for the settlements, all of which are in Area C, through the two main planning stages in 2025, an unprecedented number.

At the same time, the number of illegal settlement outposts established in the West Bank soared, with 91 such dwellings created in 2025.

“The enormous number of demolitions and demolition orders against Palestinians, which has risen dramatically in recent years, is an indication that this is only the tip of the iceberg of the government’s apartheid policy in the West Bank,” alleged Cohen Lifshitz.

“At the same time, the number of demolitions of structures belonging to Israelis is extremely low, while hundreds of illegal buildings are being constructed [in the illegal outposts] with the government’s support and as it turns a blind eye to the grave consequences of allowing lawbreakers to take the reins in the West Bank as they seek to set the region ablaze.”