Israel’s objectives and the scenario to undermine

The escalation against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank continues relentlessly at the hands of Israel’s government. Whether through the ongoing war in Gaza or the latest measures in the West Bank, this campaign lays bare the government’s true objectives: to shrink the Palestinian presence in Gaza, tighten its control there, fragment the West Bank, weaken and subjugate Palestinians, and reduce the Palestinian Authority to little more than a municipal administrator stripped of sovereign authority or legitimacy. The strategy is clear, turn back the clock by dismantling every factor that might support the creation of a Palestinian state.

To prevent such a state from emerging, Israel is focused on scattering the Palestinian people, seizing their land, carving it up and annexing it, while steadily undermining the Authority’s standing, capacity, and credibility ensuring that the international community’s recognition of Palestine remains no more than ink on paper. The situation becomes even more complicated as these Israeli policies intersect with recent US decisions targeting both Palestinians and the Authority’s leadership. Together, they reveal a rare though hardly new alignment between the two governments, designed to serve Israel’s objectives even as they defy international norms and laws.

Despite condemnations from international and regional organisations, strong opposition from global powers including Western nations, Russia, China, and Arab states and even threats or the imposition of sanctions by some, the pressing question remains: can the world, led by both Western and non Western powers, actually succeed in restraining Israel and its backers, and in protecting the Palestinians and their future at this critical juncture?

A comprehensive war on Palestinian existence

Israeli measures against the Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank and against the Palestinian Authority itself have reached unprecedented levels, amounting to a declaration of total war on a defenceless population living under its occupation. In February of last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a set of principles for “the day after” in Gaza. The plan’s core pillars have not changed: indefinite Israeli security control, the complete disarmament of Palestinian factions, the appointment of a local civilian administration, and tighter border restrictions. It is essentially the same model being implemented in the West Bank, and it automatically rules out the possibility of a sovereign Palestinian state.

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The most recent escalation in the West Bank is nothing less than an open war on its civilian population, stripping them of the right to self-determination and subjecting them fully to Israel’s political vision. Just last month, the Civil Administration’s Higher Planning Council approved the “E1” plan, which severs territorial continuity in the West Bank a move that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich boasted would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.” Israeli reports also point to government efforts to replace the Palestinian Authority’s influence in Hebron with a “local leadership,” further fragmenting Palestinian representation and eroding the Authority’s legitimacy as a representative body.

These steps come alongside Israel’s cancellation, three months ago, of the financial guarantees that allowed Israeli and Palestinian banks to transact with one another. Economists warn that this decision could cripple the Palestinian banking system, jeopardise the Authority’s ability to borrow, repay, pay salaries, and destabilise its already fragile finances. In May, the government went further, ordering the registration of land in Area C under Israeli administrative control an act tantamount to annexation.

This is only the continuation of measures launched by Netanyahu’s current coalition since taking power. In 2024, the government advanced an aggressive agenda in the West Bank: debating new settlement expansions in response to international diplomatic moves recognising Palestine, legalising outposts, sanctioning Palestinian officials, withholding tax revenues, and unleashing the army on a scale not seen in years. Raids, incursions, arrests, and attacks have intensified especially in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nablus, though no part of the West Bank has been spared.

The roots of this campaign go back to 23 February 2023, when Netanyahu signed a “memorandum of understandings” with Smotrich, his newly appointed minister of finance and a key figure in the Defense Ministry. The deal transferred sweeping authority over settlement and civilian affairs in the West Bank to Bezalel Smotrich through a new “Settlement Administration,” effectively transforming Israel’s Civil Administration from a military body into a political annexation office. Later that year, the Knesset repealed the 2005 ban on Israeli presence in parts of the northern West Bank, imposed under the “disengagement plan.” That decision paved the way for renewed settlement in areas once evacuated.

Taken together, these measures especially in recent months amount to a reengineering of power in the West Bank: transferring civilian authority into Israeli hands, fast tracking settlement approvals, applying financial and political pressure on the Palestinian Authority, and tightening the security stranglehold. The aim is unmistakable: to cement permanent Israeli control, reduce the Authority’s political, financial, and administrative capacity, and confine it to a narrow set of functions. Netanyahu himself has said it plainly: Israel will never relinquish security control over the West Bank. That position won the backing of a majority in the Knesset in February of last year.

Washington’s reinforcement

These Israeli measures are fueled by full American backing, which only amplifies their force. In recent days, Washington has escalated its own actions against Palestinians, mirroring Israel’s aggression even as US public opinion shifts steadily toward supporting Palestinian rights.

A few days ago, the Trump administration announced the suspension of most visas for Palestinian passport holders whether for study, work, visits, or even medical treatment. It is collective punishment, plain and simple, and looks alarmingly like a declaration of war on an entire people under occupation. The move follows another decision to revoke visas from Palestinian Authority officials days before the UN General Assembly, effectively barring them from attending. The official justification? Accusations that the Authority incites violence and undermines peace.

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This is a clear breach of America’s obligations under the 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement, which requires the US to allow access for UN delegates regardless of domestic laws or political disagreements. It is not the first time: in 1988 Washington blocked Yasser Arafat from addressing the Assembly.

Adding to the alarm, The Washington Post recently revealed a leaked proposal for a decade long US trusteeship over Gaza complete with plans to relocate residents abroad with financial incentives and transform the Strip into a tourist and industrial hub under joint US Israeli oversight. The idea recalls Trump’s statements at the beginning of his term, and while not officially adopted, its mere surfacing exposes the political mood in Washington: a brazen disregard for Palestinian rights and international law, and a posture at odds with much of the world. These latest US moves mark an escalation of policies this administration has pursued since taking office. In many respects this escalation surpasses that of previous administrations.

A strategy of weakness, not statehood

It is no longer hidden: Israel has no intention of withdrawing from the territories it occupied in 1967. Instead, it seeks to annex them outright, while leaving behind a hollow Palestinian Authority weak, stripped of sovereignty, and reduced to managing daily affairs without the legal foundations of statehood. In effect, Israel is entrenching the notion of a Palestinian body without sovereignty, undermining one of the core legal pillars required for a state to exist.

The financial and political pressure on the Authority seen most recently in the move to block its representatives from the UN General Assembly amounts to a diplomatic assault designed to silence its voice and weaken its legitimacy, just as Palestinian momentum has grown in the aftermath of the Gaza war.

But this joint Israeli American posture is not unchallenged. Europe has spoken out. Arab states have rejected it. Turkey has condemned it. China and Russia have opposed it. Even within the United Nations, unease is growing. The cost of Israel’s isolation is rising, especially as some Western capitals edge closer to recognising a Palestinian state.

The international community does hold tools political, financial, and legal support for the Palestinians and their institutions that could slowly disrupt, and raise the price of Israel’s designs. With enough coordination, such efforts might prevent mass displacement in Gaza, end the war, and blunt the annexation drive in the West Bank. But achieving that would require more than statements of concern. It would require collective, organised action on a scale we have yet to see.

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