01.23.2026 · 4 min reading time
January 23, 2026 · 4 min reading
Data set for 12.24.2025 to 01.23.2026
| Category | Total | 5-day avg | 30-day avg | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Incidents | 40 | | ||
| Structures | 104 | | ||
| Displaced People | 194 | | ||
| Men Displaced | 44 | | ||
| Women Displaced | 46 | | ||
| Children Displaced | 104 | |
This data set runs from 12.24.2025 to 01.23.2026, covering a 30-day period. This data is for the 30 days prior to and including the publish date, not Year-to-Date. As the data points out, across Jerusalem and the West Bank, displacement has been trending upwards. This, of course, is by design.
This data only reflects administrative home demolitions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. This doesn't include the mass demolitions of homes in the Gaza Strip, or in places like the Naqab or the Galilee.
By Data Team
data@goodshepherdcollective.org
In just the first three weeks of 2026, Israeli authorities have carried out 23 demolition operations across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, displacing 135 Palestinians and destroying 58 structures. Children account for more than half of those displaced — 70 out of 135 — while women and men make up roughly equal portions of the remaining affected population. If current trends continue, 2026 is projected to see approximately 382 demolition operations displacing more than 2,200 Palestinians and destroying nearly 1,000 structures. These figures align closely with the pace of demolitions over the past year: in the last 365 days, Israeli forces conducted 540 operations that displaced 2,161 people, including 1,019 children, and demolished 1,648 structures. The daily average remains grim — approximately 1.5 demolition operations per day, displacing roughly 6 people and destroying 4 to 5 structures every 24 hours. These figures are ONLY for the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and omit the destruction across Gaza and Palestinian homes inside of 1948 Palestine.
The scale of destruction in recent days has been particularly severe. On January 21, the Israeli Civil Administration demolished seven structures in Shuqba village near Ramallah, displacing 28 people from five households, including 16 children. The operation targeted three adjacent residential villas, each built on approximately one dunum of land, along with swimming pools, water cisterns, solar panels, and a 500-square-meter storage facility used for a family construction business. Israeli forces prevented the families from retrieving their belongings before the demolitions began, destroying furniture and burying clothing and other personal possessions beneath the rubble. The families had been fighting the demolition orders through legal channels since 2011, when stop-work orders were first issued shortly after they moved in. Despite ongoing appeals to the Israeli High Court, the demolitions proceeded before any final ruling was issued.
That same day in Kafr ad Dik near Salfit, authorities demolished a 180-square-meter poultry farm and an ancient water well — four meters wide, four meters long, and six meters deep—that had been used for agricultural purposes. The affected family, which includes seven people, had frozen all construction activity after receiving a stop-work order in 2022, hoping to avoid demolition while pursuing legal remedies through a humanitarian partner. Their compliance made no difference.
The previous day brought a similar devastation. In Tell al Khashaba, a herding community south of Nablus, Israeli forces demolished multiple residential and livestock structures, displacing two families comprising 11 people, including seven children. The demolished structures — three residential tents, five livestock tents, two toilets, and various livestock equipment — were largely donor-funded, provided to the families following previous demolition incidents. In Hebron, a family of six, including four children, was displaced when their home and water cistern were demolished. According to the homeowner, an Israeli soldier struck his 39-year-old wife with a gun butt during the operation.
Perhaps most disturbing is the situation unfolding in Silwan, East Jerusalem. On January 17, three households comprising 19 people—including 10 children—were displaced when parts of their 1960s-era residential structure collapsed due to ongoing Israeli underground excavations linked to the “City of David” settlement project. The families had reported expanding structural cracks for years, attributing the damage to tunneling activities they could hear and feel daily beneath their homes. Despite multiple complaints, Israeli authorities took no protective measures and rejected all permits for structural reinforcement. When approximately 50 square meters of the building collapsed during severe weather, including a living room, bathroom, and the shared entrance to two housing units, all three families were forced to evacuate.
These incidents illustrate a systematic policy of displacement that continues unabated, regardless of legal challenges, international humanitarian law, or the presence of donor-funded humanitarian assistance. Families who comply with stop-work orders, pursue legal remedies, and freeze construction still face demolition. Herding and Bedouin communities that receive donor-funded replacement structures watch them demolished again and again. And in East Jerusalem, Palestinian residents can see their homes crumble as the result of Israeli excavation projects while authorities deny them permission to reinforce their own walls.
