Demolish. Displace. Repeat.

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Reporting period: February 10 – March 12, 2026

From the mass displacement and erasure of Gaza’s population to the nearly 700 Palestinians driven from their homes and lands across nine West Bank communities by zionist paramilitary groups, we are watching the Israeli state tighten its grip on Historic Palestine by emptying it of its people. More than 1,700 Palestinians were displaced by lack-of-permit demolitions in 2025 alone – the highest annual total on record. The first weeks of 2026 show no meaningful decline: the current 30-day daily average stands at 1.3 incidents per day, more than 60% above the all-time average of 0.8, and the rate at which children are displaced has actually increased slightly compared to the past year. The most recent 30-day reporting period shows the material impact of zionism.

Current Trends

Daily averages by period, with trajectory comparison (30-day vs. 365-day):

While incident counts have dipped 13% in the last month compared to the annual rate (likely as a result of the diversion of military resources towards Lebanon and Iran rather than a policy change), the number of people displaced per incident remains elevated. The 30-day displaced average matches the 365-day average exactly, and the child displacement rate has risen 3.8% above the annual average. This means that even as demolitions fluctuate month to month, the current design of demolitions are targeting family homes rather than other infrastructure. In other words, the intent is to drive people from their lands. What is important to remember is that this data is only for East Jerusalem and the West Bank. It doesn’t take into account mass destruction of Gaza and the emptying of Bedouin communities in the Naqab — which, some years, face a higher rate of destruction than Palestinian communities across the West Bank.

The geographic concentration highlights: lands most coveted by the zionist movement for economic development are targeted first. Jerusalem, arguably the crown jewel of zionist projects, has the all-time record of demolitions at 2,092 (42% of the total), followed by Hebron (855), Bethlehem (380), and Nablus (306). In the past 30 days, Jenin has seen a sharp spike — with military operations to demolish homes and structures up over 150% compared to its annual rate — while Hebron’s displacement numbers surged nearly 85% above its yearly average. In Qalqiliya, only one incident was recorded in the past month but it displaced 22 people including 12 children, a figure representing over 300% of its annual monthly average.

Ramadan

On the first day of Ramadan, February 18, Israeli forces demolished a two-building residential complex belonging to the Salhab family in the Al-Harayeq area of Khirbet Qalqas, south of Hebron and adjacent to the Hagai settlement. The complex consisted of a three-story building containing six apartments and a two-story building with four apartments, housing more than 40 people. Muhammad Salhab told the Palestinian news agency WAFA that the family held official land registry documents and had filed a court appeal against the demolition order, both of which were disregarded. Israeli forces used tear gas, stun grenades, and live ammunition to force residents from their homes, and some personal belongings were lost under the rubble.

On March 12, Israeli forces returned to Qalqas and confiscated six tents that had been sheltering the same families since the demolition. According to Salhab, the tents were housing more than 40 people, most of them women and children. The sequence of homes demolished on the first day of Ramadan, then the replacement tents confiscated during Ramadan really illustrates the policy of compounding displacement designed to force families from their land. This isn’t a simple matter of hate, as some would like to frame it, but an economic model that is premised on the dispossession of the indigenous people of their lands and the capture of their resources.

On February 15, Israeli forces and the Civil Administration demolished two structures in Jayyus village, east of Qalqiliya, under the standard pretext of lacking a building permit in Area C. The first structure was a 200-square-meter residential house divided into five units, each with two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom, serving five families — a total of 22 people, including 12 children. The second was a 30-square-meter livestock shelter belonging to the same families. Both were demolished entirely. A 100-meter surrounding wall was also destroyed.

The affected families had received a stop-work order in August 2015 and initiated legal proceedings with JLAC (the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center), achieving no results. They subsequently retained a private lawyer on February 1, 2026, but ultimately did not successfully obstruct the demolition proceedings. Jayyus has a long history of land confiscation: the village sits along the Separation Wall, which cuts its farmers off from approximately 75% of their agricultural land, according to OCHA. The settlement of Zufin, built on Jayyus land in the late 1980s, continues to expand into confiscated village territory. Jayyus highlights that Israeli courts do not function as a nonviolent option for Palestinian to find redress to injustice, but as a mechanism of violence.

These cases follow the same logic that runs through the aggregate data: Palestinian families build on land they own, are denied Israeli permits they are structurally excluded from obtaining, exhaust legal channels that produce no relief, and are then forcibly displaced. In Qalqas, the additional step of confiscating emergency shelter during Ramadan signals that the objective is not regulatory enforcement but the permanent removal of Palestinian presence from land adjacent to Israeli settlements. The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission noted that Israeli authorities issued 40 new demolition notices in February 2026 alone, pointing to further displacement in the weeks ahead.