Israel's "silent annexation" plans, voiced in recent weeks by the government, are beginning to take physical shape in the West Bank and Gaza. After Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the "cancellation" of the Hebron Agreements, Israeli forces entered the Ibrahimi Mosque with heavy machinery and placed steel beams over its open courtyard.
The mosque's director said the structural intervention has fundamentally changed the ancient site's historical character. Israeli authorities have also not allowed the Muslim call to prayer there for a week and a half.
Settlement infrastructure expands
In the illegal outpost system in the West Bank, Israel has moved to make permanent the settlement infrastructure that even its own law had previously deemed illegal. Israeli authorities declared 465 dunams of land near Sincil, north of Ramallah, as "state land." According to the Palestinian Commission of Colonization and Wall Resistance, this step aims to retroactively legalize the Givat Haroeh outpost, which was converted into an official settlement in 2023, and connect it to the settlement bloc on Route 60.
Meanwhile, Jewish settlers have opened new service roads on private Palestinian land near Kobar and Beitillu, and have fenced off land near al-Mazraa al-Sharqiya and Kafr Malik for a new outpost.
'Yellow line' advances in Gaza
In Gaza, Israel's land grab has entered a new phase. Smotrich announced that planning for three settlement units in the northern Gaza Strip has been completed and requested approval from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu separately said Israel aims to take control of 70% of Gaza.
Along the "yellow line" that defines Israel's control line inside Gaza, forces have moved concrete markers further west. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), on the night of June 23, a quadcopter dropped incendiary munitions near Beit Lahiya, setting three shelter tents on fire; afterward, Israeli forces placed a yellow concrete block near the families' shelters. OCHA recalled that the UN human rights office has recorded around 200 Palestinians killed along the same line since October, and assesses 65% of Gaza as "access restricted."
Child deaths and UN report
On June 23, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry released a report finding that Israeli forces deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children. According to the report, at least 20,179 children were killed between October 2023 and October 2025, accounting for about 30% of total deaths. The commission said the deliberate killing of children is a key element demonstrating genocidal intent. Israel rejected the report as a "slanderous fake document."
Days later, Israeli human rights group B'Tselem reported that since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed 241 Palestinian children and youth in the occupied West Bank, the product of a policy with almost no accountability.
In recent days, new names have been added to these reports. On June 29, during an Israeli raid in al-Bireh near Ramallah, 15-year-old Ahmed Javad Jabir was shot in the head and chest and died on arrival at the hospital; Ramallah Governor Laila Ghannam called the incident "a clear execution in broad daylight." In Gaza, according to health sources and WAFA, 13-year-old Eileen al-Farra died from shrapnel wounds, and eight-year-old Malik Abu Shawesh died near Deir al-Balah. On the evening of June 29, an Israeli attack on a tent in the al-Mawasi area, designated "safe" under the ceasefire, killed 23-year-old Diana Abu Darez and her infant daughter Suwar.
Settler attacks and rare prosecution
According to OCHA's latest report, 11 settler attacks have been recorded since May in the Dar Fazaa and East Taybeh communities in the Ramallah area, following the establishment of a new outpost nearby. Settlers have seized the only water source, leaving over 200 people without water. Nine of the ten Bedouin communities along the same route have already been emptied.
State response to settler violence has been limited to isolated incidents. Israeli prosecutors charged six settlers—five minors and one 18-year-old—in connection with an arson attack on June 14 in Deir Dibwan, where masked individuals set fire to vehicles and a mosque. The same week, on June 25, Israeli forces demolished homes in a settler outpost in Beit Anot. However, both prosecutions and demolitions faced protests from settler leaders, and according to WAFA, settler raids and arson continued daily.
Deaths continue under ceasefire
Nearly nine months after the nominal ceasefire in Gaza, the post-ceasefire death toll has reached at least 1,045, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Last week, Israeli attacks recorded one death in Beit Lahiya, another near the Magazi camp from a vehicle strike that killed three policemen, and two brothers killed in al-Mawasi.
The Health Ministry warned that about half of Gaza's dialysis machines are out of service due to Israel's continued blocking of critical medical supplies. OCHA reported that less than 25% of humanitarian aid operations in Gaza are still funded.
