The Israeli advocacy group, Peace Now, warned that the policy being implemented by the Israeli government in the West Bank weakens the Palestinian Authority and strains the 33-year-old Oslo framework through settlement expansion and shifted administrative powers.
In a report obtained by Ynet on Tuesday, Peace Now accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of carrying out an organized and consistent campaign to weaken the Palestinian Authority economically, politically, territorially and in terms of security.
It said the Israeli government violated the agreements signed in Oslo by expanding settlements and transferring authority in Areas A and B of the West Bank to the Civil Administration.
The movement then warned that these practices represent an Israeli undeclared annexation of the territories.
“Netanyahu’s government is playing with fire, disregarding its international commitments and endangering Israel’s security - all in order to take control of more territory and land in the West Bank,” Peace Now said.
It added that “the government’s actions in Areas A and B are not isolated incidents but part of an organized policy whose ultimate goal is to collapse the Palestinian Authority and create chaos that would allow it to expand settlements into cities and villages deep inside the West Bank.”
The Oslo Accords split the West Bank into three temporary zones: Area A (about 18% under Palestinian control), Area B (about 22% under joint control), and Area C (about 60% under full Israeli control). The five-year interim plan never shifted to a permanent treaty.
Since the Second Intifada, the Israeli military has routinely conducted operations, raids, and incursions into Area A, fundamentally altering the implementation of the original agreement.
Peace Now said the Israeli military further violated the agreement last year when it used land-requisition orders inside Area A for explicitly civilian settlement purpose, rather than for military purposes.
Also, Peace Now’s report said one of the main tools used to pressure the PA is the withholding of tax revenues collected by Israel on its behalf under the 1994 Paris Protocol.
The revenues amount to about 11 billion shekels (around $3.66 billion) a year and have historically accounted for more than 60% of the Palestinian Authority’s budget, according to Ynet.
Peace Now said only about half of the funds owed to the Palestinian Authority were transferred under the current government between 2022 and 2025. Since June 2025, not a single shekel has been transferred, according to the report.
It also noted the security cabinet measures introduced in February and which authorized the Civil Administration to enforce regulations and oversee environmental protection, water and archaeology in Areas A and B of the West Bank.
The Israeli government claimed the move was aimed at preventing environmental hazards and damage to heritage sites, it said.
Peace Now noted that the environmental and archaeological measures use definitions broad enough to enable Israeli civilian authorities to intervene in Palestinian construction across much of the West Bank.
It then cited Israeli military orders issued in July to requisition Palestinian land inside Area A for a road connecting two settlements.
The movement said it was the first time since the Oslo Accords were signed that military land-requisition orders had been used inside Area A for an explicitly civilian settlement purpose, rather than for military purposes.
Peace Now said it had also documented at least 23 settlement outposts established in Areas B over the past two and a half years.
But even when the military occasionally removes the outposts, they are rebuilt and expanded, including with permanent structures, it said.
The movement noted that the outposts have been accompanied by the construction of roads, the takeover of water sources and the displacement of Palestinian residents.
Settlers have also taken over abandoned Palestinian homes in Areas B and C after residents were forced to leave following repeated settler attacks.
The report mentions a June decision by the Civil Administration, which moved to strip the Palestinian municipality of Hebron of broad planning and construction powers relating to settlements and several holy sites in the heart of the city.
Peace Now stressed that the government has not formally announced the cancellation of the Oslo Accords, nor has it introduced legislation to annex the West Bank or dismantle the Palestinian Authority.
The group argued that the measures combined amount in practice to a process of undeclared annexation.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the report was a “certificate of achievement for the Israeli government.”
He said, “What they call ‘the erosion of Oslo’ we call correcting an injustice resulting from 30 years of neglect,” according to Ynet.
“What they call ‘de facto annexation’ we call establishing Israel’s security belt,” the minister added. “I am proud of the settlement revolution I have led to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state in the heart of the country. This is only the beginning.”
