The Annexation of Gaza and the West Bank Has Already Begun
Israel no longer hides its intentions. With public plans to reshape Gaza and West Bank realities, the blueprint for annexation is already in motion, and the world is watching in silence.
For decades, Israel has maintained the narrative that occupation was temporary. That the West Bank was disputed territory to be negotiated, and that Gaza was a problem to be solved. But in recent weeks, that fiction has been stripped away. Through new statements, leaked plans, and military movements, the Israeli government has made one thing clear: the annexation of both the West Bank and Gaza is not a threat. It's a process. One already underway.
In the West Bank, the infrastructure of annexation has long been visible. Israeli settlements, considered illegal under international law, have spread across the territory for decades. But since October 2023, settler violence has surged, with entire Palestinian villages emptied or destroyed under military protection. Far-right ministers have openly called for the full incorporation of the West Bank into Israel proper.
Earlier this month, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who holds de facto governing power over parts of the West Bank, declared the need for a new wave of Israeli migration into the territory. His comments came just days after the Knesset passed a symbolic motion supporting full annexation. While the motion is not legally binding, its political message is unmistakable: Israel's governing coalition does not see the West Bank as a separate entity. It sees it as theirs.
That vote, passed in the Knesset in late July 2025, was widely condemned internationally but celebrated by members of Israel's ruling far-right coalition. Though framed as symbolic, it signals a political consensus that full Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank is now the end goal. When paired with expanding settlements and near-total military control, the vote is a step toward formalizing an annexation that has long been de facto.
In Gaza, the situation is no longer one of war, but of restructuring. Over 80,000 Palestinians have been killed since the assault began in late 2023, and more than a million are now displaced. A number that is a miscount, an undercount, as we have not yet searched for mass graves, or dug up any rubble. With most of northern Gaza rendered uninhabitable, the Israeli government has shifted its focus south.
Plans shared in July 2025 describe a proposal to turn the ruins of Rafah into a Concentration Camp where displaced Palestinians would be confined, screened, and ultimately encouraged to emigrate. The proposal, called a “humanitarian city'“, championed by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, would place the entire population of Gaza under permanent Israeli control, behind walls they cannot leave. Critics, including former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, have called the plan a concentration camp.
Never Again, for Whom? Israel to Relocate 600,000 Palestinians Into a Massive Concentration Camp
Israel is preparing to relocate more than half a million Palestinians into a walled compound built atop the ruins of Rafah. They're calling it a "humanitarian city." The world should be calling it what it is: a concentration camp.
Though the Israeli military reportedly opposes the project for logistical and legal reasons, the fact that it has been publicly proposed, and not withdrawn, is a clear signal of intent. It matches the broader political direction of the current government: permanent control over all land between the river and the sea.
There is no serious peace process. There is no two-state solution being revived. Instead, Israeli policymakers are drawing a new map, one where Palestine does not exist. Gaza, in this vision, is either emptied or contained. The West Bank is absorbed, one checkpoint and settlement at a time.
This is not speculation. It is already happening. As the world debates resolutions and calls for restraint, Israel builds roads, redraws borders, and passes laws that codify annexation under a veneer of legality.
The world has seen this before. Where settlements appear, displacement follows. Where walls are built, freedom ends. If the international community continues to call this a "conflict," it will miss the reality unfolding: this is not a conflict. It is a takeover.
And it’s probably too late to stop it.