Urban planning might sound technical, but for Palestinians it determines whether families can legally build homes for their children, add rooms as families grow, or even have shelter at all. In Gaza, the systematic destruction of housing since 2023 has left the majority of the population homeless, while in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinians face a dual system where their building permit applications are almost always rejected.

In Gaza, over 80% of housing structures have been damaged or destroyed since October 2023, leaving an estimated 1.7 million people internally displaced, often multiple times as “safe zones” have been repeatedly targeted. UN satellite analysis has shown systematic destruction of entire neighborhoods, with analysts noting patterns consistent with deliberate destruction rather than collateral damage. Meanwhile, in East Jerusalem and Area C (together 70% of the West Bank), Israel’s discriminatory urban planning regime systematically denies Palestinians building rights while facilitating Israeli settlement expansion. In East Jerusalem, 57% of land is designated as “green spaces” or for public use, preventing Palestinian development, while only 13% is zoned for Palestinian construction—and most of that is already built up. This planning apartheid forces Palestinians to build without permits, leaving 68,000 East Jerusalem Palestinians at risk of displacement through home demolitions. Between 2000-2023, Israeli authorities demolished over 3,300 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, displacing 10,400 people. Meanwhile, Israeli settlements in and around East Jerusalem have received state support for over 57,000 new housing units in the same period. In Area C, Israel rejects 97% of Palestinian building permit applications while approving master plans for only 1% of the land. This has left over 225,000 Palestinians in Area C under the constant threat of demolition and displacement, effectively preventing natural growth for these communities while adjacent settlements expand rapidly.

Sources: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs “Demolition Database” (2023), Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research “Statistical Yearbook” (2022), Ir Amim “Planning Policy in East Jerusalem” (2023), UNITAR-UNOSAT “Damage Assessment in Gaza” (2023-2024), UN Human Settlement Programme “Gaza Housing Destruction Analysis” (2024)

Occupation creates major barriers to Palestinian economic development and prosperity. Palestinians cannot freely import or export goods, access much of their agricultural land, or develop industries. The system forces dependence on the Israeli economy while preventing Palestinians from building their own viable economic future.

The Palestinian economy operates under severe restrictions that render meaningful development nearly impossible. Movement restrictions fragment markets, with World Bank estimates suggesting that removing these barriers would increase Palestinian GDP by 33%. Israel controls all external trade through its ports and border crossings, imposing costly “back-to-back” transfer systems that increase transaction costs by up to 40%. The Paris Protocol economic agreement forces Palestinians to import primarily through Israeli intermediaries, resulting in artificially high prices and an estimated annual loss of $1.4 billion due to fiscal leakage. In Area C (62% of the West Bank), Palestinians are denied access to 83% of land for productive development, costing an estimated $3.4 billion annually—equal to 35% of Palestinian GDP. Under occupation, unemployment has reached 26% in the West Bank and 45% in Gaza, with youth unemployment exceeding 60%. Since 1994, the Palestinian economy’s productive capacity has declined sharply, with manufacturing falling from 19% to 10% of GDP as Israeli restrictions have induced de-industrialization. Meanwhile, Israel collects Palestinian tax revenues and has withheld these funds at least 20 times since 2000 as political leverage, creating fiscal crises for the Palestinian Authority.

Sources: World Bank “Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee” (2023), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development “The Economic Costs of the Israeli Occupation” (2022), International Monetary Fund “West Bank and Gaza Report” (2023)

Administrative detention is a system that allows authorities to imprison people without charging them with a crime, without a trial, and without letting them or their lawyers see the evidence against them. For Palestinian families, this means loved ones can disappear into detention for months or years with no legal recourse, not knowing when they might return home.

According to Addameer Prisoner Support organization, over 1,300 Palestinians were held under administrative detention as of mid-2023, including children as young as 12. Detention orders are renewable indefinitely in six-month intervals, with some prisoners held for over 15 years without charge. Palestinian prisoners report systematic mistreatment, with 73% experiencing physical torture and 95% psychological abuse, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club. Common practices include stress positions, sleep deprivation, extreme temperature exposure, and threats against family members. Medical neglect is widespread, with 700 prisoners requiring urgent care denied adequate treatment. Since 1967, over 230 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody due to torture, medical neglect, or direct violence. The targeting of Palestinian civil society through detention has intensified, with six leading human rights organizations designated as “terrorist organizations” in 2021 despite international condemnation and without substantive evidence.

Sources: Addameer Prisoner Support “Annual Detention Facts and Figures” (2023), UN Committee Against Torture “Concluding observations on Israel” (2021), Public Committee Against Torture in Israel “Torture of Palestinian Detainees” (2022), Human Rights Watch “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution” (2021)

Imagine needing a permit to visit relatives in the next town, waiting hours at checkpoints to reach work or school, or being unable to travel freely within your own country. This is daily reality for Palestinians. The occupation divides Palestinian territories into isolated areas, making normal movement between Palestinian communities difficult or impossible.

Palestinians face one of the world’s most complex systems of movement restrictions, dividing communities and crippling economic development. The West Bank is fragmented into 165 disconnected “territorial islands” separated by checkpoints, the separation barrier, settlements, and Israeli-only roads. The separation barrier, 85% of which is built inside the West Bank rather than along the Green Line, spans 712 kilometers and isolates 11,000 Palestinians who need special permits to live in their own homes. East Jerusalem Palestinians are physically separated from the West Bank, while the 2.1 million Gazans are almost completely unable to travel to the West Bank or East Jerusalem. Palestinians with West Bank IDs must obtain special permits to enter East Jerusalem or Israel, with only 2% of Palestinians granted such permits annually. Over 200,000 Palestinians are denied movement permits under an opaque “security ban” system lacking meaningful appeal mechanisms. Palestinians with different ID cards (West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza, Israeli citizenship) often cannot live together legally as families, with approximately 45,000 families separated by these restrictions.

Sources: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs “Movement Restrictions Database” (2023), B’Tselem “Restrictions on Movement” (2022), HaMoked “Families Divided” (2021)

Water is a basic human necessity, yet Palestinians face severe inequality in access to this vital resource under a system that allocates water rights based on ethnic identity. This water apartheid means Palestinians cannot freely access or develop their natural water sources, while Israeli settlements built on occupied land receive abundant water supplies.

Israel controls 85% of the water resources in the West Bank but allocates only 20% to Palestinians, resulting in significant disparities: Israelis consume approximately 300 liters per person daily compared to 73 liters for Palestinians—well below the World Health Organization’s recommended minimum of 100 liters. Over 200,000 Palestinians in 180 West Bank communities lack direct water connections, forcing them to pay up to 400% more for trucked water of uncertain quality. In Gaza, the situation has become catastrophic after the 2023 military campaign, with the water system largely destroyed and the population facing acute water insecurity. Prior to this, 97% of groundwater was already contaminated due to overextraction, seawater intrusion, and infrastructure damage. The occupation prevents Palestinians from drilling new wells or rehabilitating existing ones without difficult-to-obtain permits, while Israeli deep wells and water-intensive agricultural settlements further deplete shared aquifers. This control extends to other natural resources: Palestinians are prohibited from extracting minerals from the Dead Sea (potential value: $1.4 billion annually), developing oil and gas fields (estimated reserves: 30 billion cubic meters), or quarrying in 78% of stone reserves, costing the Palestinian economy over $600 million annually.

Sources: World Bank “Assessment of Restrictions on Palestinian Water Sector Development” (2022), B’Tselem “Water Crisis” (2023), Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute “Natural Resource Loss Under Occupation” (2021)

The Gaza Strip is a densely populated coastal enclave where 2.1 million Palestinians have been subjected to a comprehensive blockade since 2007. Since October 2023, Gaza has experienced what numerous UN officials and international organizations have described as a humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented scale, with mass civilian casualties, widespread destruction, and extreme deprivation.

Gaza’s residents, over 65% of whom are refugees, endured a 16-year blockade before the military campaign that began in October 2023 drove the territory into catastrophic conditions. The military operation has resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths, including a disproportionate number of women and children, according to UN monitoring bodies. An estimated 85% of Gaza’s population has been internally displaced, with most forced to flee multiple times as evacuation zones repeatedly shift. Over 80% of housing structures have been damaged or destroyed, along with most hospitals, schools, universities, and basic infrastructure. Critical services including healthcare, water treatment, and food distribution have collapsed. UN agencies have documented unprecedented levels of hunger and malnutrition, with children particularly affected. Prior destruction has been compounded by limits on humanitarian aid, creating what multiple UN officials have characterized as one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in recent history. The systematic nature of infrastructure destruction and the extreme levels of civilian casualties have led human rights experts to warn of “textbook case” conditions reflected in the Genocide Convention.

Sources: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development “Report on Assistance to the Palestinian People” (2022), UN Human Rights Council “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories” (2023), UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs “Gaza Emergency Situation Reports” (2023-2024), UN Special Advisers on Prevention of Genocide and Responsibility to Protect “Statement on the Situation in Gaza” (2024)