Palestinian Commission Tallies 9,518 Israeli Demolition and Stop-Work Notices in West Bank Since 2015

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, a Palestinian government body, says Israeli authorities have issued 9,518 demolition or stop-work notices against Palestinian structures in the occupied West Bank since the start of 2015. The figure, reported Saturday by Anadolu Agency, is drawn from commission records and partner legal organizations, including the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center and the Society of St. Yves.

Of that total, the commission documented 9,174 notices between 2015 and 2025, with another 344 issued in the first nine months of 2026. The commission notes its own count likely understates the real number, since it does not necessarily capture every notice Israeli authorities issue.

The notices halted construction and left properties under threat, disrupting the lives of families and limiting communities' ability to build homes, expand services and sustain livelihoods, the commission said.

Hebron accounts for the largest share of notices by far, 2,697, followed by Bethlehem with 1,310, Ramallah and al-Bireh with 1,118, and Jerusalem with 929. The annual pace has grown over the decade: 701 notices in 2015 against a peak of 1,333 in 2023.

A parallel UN count

Separate data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, covering the same roughly eleven-year span, puts the number of structures actually demolished at nearly 12,000, including 1,698 that were funded by international donors. OCHA attributes the resulting displacement at more than 18,000 Palestinians, with roughly 843,000 people affected in some way by the demolitions.

OCHA's records list the grounds cited for these demolitions as falling into three categories: lack of an Israeli-issued building permit, punitive measures, and demolitions carried out during military operations.

An example of the punitive category came on October 30, 2026, when the Israeli army demolished the homes of two Palestinians accused of carrying out an armed attack in Hebron that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others, according to a photograph and caption distributed by Anadolu Agency. Punitive home demolitions, which target the family residences of attack suspects regardless of the family's own conduct, have long drawn criticism from human rights groups as a form of collective punishment.

The commission's stop-work and demolition-notice data and OCHA's demolition and displacement figures are compiled independently but describe the same administrative machinery: a permit regime under Israeli military and civil authority in which Palestinian construction across the West Bank, from Hebron to Jerusalem, remains subject to notice, halt, or destruction.