THE Palestinian Government Communication Centre has issued its weekly Situation Report covering the key recent developments across occupied Palestine.
This week’s report highlights Israel’s renewed genocide in Gaza, continued military aggression on the West Bank, and record-breaking Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank.
Israel Resumes Genocide Against Gaza
On 18 March, the Israeli occupation resumed its full-scale genocidal war on Gaza, killing 673 Palestinians and injuring at least 1,230 in a 72-hour period.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director confirmed that more than 130 children were killed in a single day, marking one of the deadliest child death tolls in the past year.
Israel’s Relentless Assault on Northern West Bank Continues Unabated
Israeli occupation forces continue to kill, arrest, and forcibly displace Palestinians, as well as destroying infrastructure, burning homes, and forcibly turning others into military barracks. Over 600 residential units in Jenin have been rendered uninhabitable, and Israeli forces have targeted healthcare services, with The World Health Organisation (WHO) reporting 64 attacks on medical facilities in the West Bank in 2025 alone.
Accelerated, Unprecedented Settlement Expansion
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) revealed that Israel has established 49 new settlement installations (outposts) in the past year, an unprecedented figure compared to the annual average of eight outposts over the past decade. The report confirms a record-breaking 24,193 dunams of West Bank land have been seized for settlers.
Israel Moves to Legalise 13 New Colonial Installations
Israel approved a plan to formalise 13 settlement outposts throughout the occupied West Bank, a move hailed by Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich as a step toward de facto annexation. The Palestinian Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission warned that these settlements aim to seize more Palestinian land and reduce Palestinian geographical contiguity.
Palestinian Government Announces Austerity Budget Amid Israeli Financial Warfare
The Palestinian government introduced an emergency budget for Financial Year 2025, prioritising urgent public services and economic resilience as Israel continues to illegally deduct 50% of Palestinian tax revenues every month.
PM Mustafa and Egyptian Counterpart Discuss Ceasefire and Reconstruction
In a meeting with Egyptian Prime Minister Dr Mostafa Madbouly, Palestinan PM Dr Mohammad Mustafa emphasised the urgent need for a ceasefire in Gaza to support early recovery and reconstruction efforts. Egypt reaffirmed the importance of solidifying the ceasefire, while ensuring that Palestinians in Gaza stay on their land.
- An Israeli was killed and others were injured on Monday in a car-ramming and shooting attack near Haifa.
According to media reports citing the Israeli police, a group of people were run over and shot at a bus station southeast of Haifa.
One Israeli was killed and several others injured. The police ‘neutralised’ the perpetrator.
From Sunday evening until Monday morning, the Israeli occupation forces detained at least 30 Palestinians from the West Bank.
The Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) reported that among the detainees is the former prisoner Ahmed Walid Khashan from the town of Bir al-Basha in the Jenin Governorate, one of those released in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.
They noted that the occupation forces have been continuing their aggression against the Jenin and Tulkarm Governorates for weeks, accompanied by ongoing detention and field investigations.
Since the beginning of the invasion, the number of detainees in Jenin and its refugee camp has reached 480, while in Tulkarm and its two refugee camps, the number has reached 230.
This figure includes those kept in detention by the occupation, as well as those subsequently released. It includes all categories of prisoners, particularly young men.
It is noteworthy that the occupation has adopted a series of policies in various areas where the aggression has escalated, the most prominent of which are field executions, assassinations, and systematic field investigations that have affected dozens of families.
In addition, it has detained citizens as hostages and converted homes into military barracks after forcing their owners to leave and flee to other areas.
This is in addition to the deliberate destruction of infrastructure.
The occupation forces raid Palestinian homes almost daily across the West Bank on the pretext of searching for ‘wanted’ Palestinians, triggering clashes with residents.
These raids are conducted without a search warrant, whenever and wherever the military chooses under its sweeping arbitrary powers.
Under Israeli military law, army commanders have full executive, legislative, and judicial authority over three million Palestinians living in the West Bank who have no say in how this authority is exercised.
According to the latest figures from Addameer, the Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, there are currently 9,500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centres, including 350 children and 21 female prisoners.
This number includes approximately 3,405 Palestinians placed under ‘administrative detention’, which allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from seeing.
The mass arrest of Palestinians is nothing new. According to a 2017 report by Addameer, over the past 50 years, more than 800,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned or detained by Israel, this figure is now believed to be closer to one million.
This means that about 40% of Palestinian men and boys living under military occupation have been deprived of their freedom. Almost every Palestinian family has suffered the imprisonment of a loved one.
Meanwhile on Monday, Israeli occupation bulldozers demolished a Palestinian-owned house and a water well in the southern part of Hebron city.
The owner, Ramadan Naif al-Rajabi, said that the bulldozers destroyed a 120-square-metre house he was constructing, along with a water well.
He said the Israeli authorities had issued a demolition notice for the house approximately ten days ago, adding that his previous house in the same area had been demolished by the occupation twenty years ago.
In February, Israeli occupation authorities carried out 79 demolitions affecting 156 structures, including 109 inhabited homes, five uninhabited homes and 34 agricultural and other facilities.
The demolitions were concentrated in several governorates, with 55 structures demolished in Hebron, followed by 26 houses in Jenin, 19 in Jerusalem, and 15 in Salfit.
Also on Monday, Israeli forces demolished a commercial structure in the eastern part of Qalqilya.
The official in charge of the wall and settlement file in Qalqilya Governorate, Munif Nazzal, told Palestinian news agency WAFA that the occupation’s bulldozers demolished a 200-square-metre cattle farming facility owned by a local Palestinian resident in the eastern area of Al-Funduq village, east of Qalqilya, under the pretext that it was located in area ‘C’ of the West Bank, which falls under full Israeli military rule.
And Israeli colonists seized several camels in the village of Rashayda, located east of Bethlehem.
Local activist Fawaz Rashayda reported to WAFA that colonists, using a vehicle, intercepted a herd of camels belonging to local resident Ayoub Ahmad Rashayda, and rustled nine of them.
Rashayda said such incidents have occurred before, with the so-called Israeli Nature Protection Authority and colonists targeting the camels as they are grazing, in an effort to drive Palestinians out of the area and take control of the land.
- According to a report issued on Monday by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), an increase has been noted in Trade Balance Deficit for Registered Goods by 34% in January 2025 compared to January 2024.
Exports increased in January, 2025 by 8% compared to January, 2024 and reached US$140.7 Million.
Exports to Israel increased in January, 2025 by 21% compared to January, 2024 and it represented 90% of total exports in January, 2025.
On the other hand, exports to other countries decreased by 45% during the same period compared to January, 2024.
Imports increased in January, 2025 by 27% compared to January, 2024 and reached US$616.1 Million.
Imports from Israel increased by 14% in January, 2025 compared to January, 2024 and it represented 56% of total imports in January, 2025.
At the same time, imports from other countries increased by 48% compared to January, 2024.
