The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ) said the Israeli occupation army issued 146 military orders in 2025 targeting more than 11,200 dunams of Palestinian land across the occupied West Bank, while restricting access to over 25,000 additional dunams during the olive harvest season.
In a report released Thursday, ARIJ detailed the distribution of the orders by governorate, the total areas affected, and their percentage of the overall land seized.
According to the report, Nablus governorate recorded the largest area of land targeted, with 6,906 dunams — accounting for 61.5% of the total — through 76 military notices. Ramallah followed with 1,301 dunams (11.59%) through 22 notices, and Tubas with 1,096 dunams (9.76%) through 14 notices.
In Jerusalem, Israeli occupation authorities targeted 555 dunams (4.94%) through three notices. Qalqilya saw 522 dunams seized (4.65%) through six notices, Jenin 356 dunams (3.17%) through seven notices, and Tulkarm 204 dunams (1.82%) through a single notice.
Additionally, 168 dunams were seized in Salfit (1.50%) through six notices, 63 dunams in Bethlehem (0.57%) through two notices, 52 dunams in Hebron (0.47%) through eight notices, and four dunams in Jericho (0.04%) through one notice.
ARIJ noted that since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in 1967, Israeli occupation authorities have employed military orders as a broad “legal” mechanism to impose geographic and demographic realities on Palestinian land.
The institute said such orders have effectively become a standardized procedure used to confiscate Palestinian property under various pretexts.
These include declaring lands as “state land,” designating them as “nature reserves” or “green areas,” classifying them as “firing zones” or “closed military zones,” or expropriating them for what authorities describe as “public interest” or “Israeli archaeological sites,” among other justifications.
The report emphasized that land seizure and military requisition orders remain among the most direct tools used by Israeli authorities to assert control over Palestinian land, alongside settlement expansion plans and infrastructure projects introduced annually to enlarge settlements and outposts.
ARIJ added that these measures, regardless of their stated rationale, contravene the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from confiscating private property except in cases of imperative military necessity. The institute also cited the Hague Regulations, which require respect for private property and prohibit its seizure.
Furthermore, ARIJ referenced the 2004 advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice concerning the legal consequences of constructing the separation wall in the occupied Palestinian territory. The opinion reaffirmed the applicability of international humanitarian law and international human rights law to the occupied territories.
According to the advisory opinion, measures that alter the demographic and geographic character of Palestinian land undermine the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and negatively affect the prospects of establishing a geographically contiguous and viable Palestinian state.
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