00:00With Israel preparing to undertake a major settlement project to build 3,400 homes on
00:23an ultra-sensitive part of the West Bank, here are some key numbers you must know about
00:29the occupied Palestinian territory.
00:40Situated between Israel and Jordan, the West Bank covers 5,655 square kilometers.
00:47Not counting Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, nearly 3 million Palestinians live there,
00:53along with around 500,000 Israelis residing in settlements that are considered illegal
00:59under international law.
01:01The anti-settlement NGO, PeaceNow, counted 147 settlements registered by the Israeli authorities
01:09in the West Bank as of the end of 2024.
01:12There are another 224 outposts that are set up without official authorization.
01:20These outposts are regularly evacuated and dismantled by the Israeli security services, though they
01:26are also often legalized retroactively.
01:29A record 60 outposts were set up in the West Bank in 2024, almost twice as many as in 2023,
01:36according to PeaceNow, which links the trend to the far-right presence in Israel's coalition
01:42government.
01:43By comparison, between 1996 and early 2023, fewer than seven outposts were set up on average
01:50each year.
01:51Violence in the territory surged after the start of the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas's unprecedented
01:577 October 2023 attack on southern Israel.
02:02Since then, at least 971 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including many militants,
02:09according to Palestinian Authority figures.
02:12At least 36 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or military
02:17operations over the same period, according to official Israeli data.
02:28Under the Oslo Accords, signed in the 1990s by the Israeli and Palestinians, the West Bank
02:33is divided into three areas.
02:35Area A is run by the Palestinian Authority, B is under mixed Israeli and Palestinian jurisdiction,
02:41and Area C comprises 60% of the territory, which is totally under Israeli control.
02:48The Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley, a swath of farmland accounting for nearly 30%
02:54of the West Bank and home to some 10,000 settlers, are mostly in Area C.
02:59They are at the center of an annexation project that was officially put off in 2020 by Israel
03:05under international pressure, though far-right members of the current government have reviewed
03:09calls to extend Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank.
03:21The effects of the Gaza war have taken an economic toll on the West Bank, according to a joint
03:26report from the European Union, the United Nations, and the World Bank in February.
03:31Since October 7, 2023, Israel has limited Palestinians' access to its job market.
03:38Only around 27,000 Palestinians are now employed in Israel or in West Bank settlements, compared
03:45to 1,77,000 before the war, according to the report.
03:51The unemployment rate in the West Bank was estimated at 35% between October 2023 and September 2024,
03:59compared to 14% before the Gaza war.
04:03The poverty rate has more than doubled, going from 12% to 28% as of mid-2024.
