DUBAI: Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has accused Israel of pursuing what it calls an “elimination project” aimed at dismantling Palestinian collective life in the occupied West Bank.

In a report published this month, the group said Israeli policies had intensified significantly since the current government took office in 2022 and accelerated further following the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.

The report, titled “The Elimination Project,” examines what B’Tselem describes as the systematic dismantling of the conditions that enable Palestinians to maintain their communities, institutions, land and social ties in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

It said restrictions increasingly affect routine aspects of Palestinian life, including access to work, education and healthcare, family visits and the ability to cultivate agricultural land.

B’Tselem also highlighted what it described as a persistent threat of violence against Palestinians, including killings and abuse by Israeli forces and settlers.

The report also examined what B’Tselem describes as a broader system of Israeli control and the policies and institutions responsible for implementing it.

The group identified five main areas through which it says Israel exerts control over Palestinians: violence and intimidation, restrictions on movement, economic pressure, the erosion of social and political life, and what it describes as ethnic cleansing and territorial takeover.

“These five domains operate at once and reinforce one another,” B’Tselem said, arguing that their combined effect weakens Palestinian institutions, political participation and connections to their land while facilitating the expansion of Israeli control over the West Bank.

The report also cited Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s 2017 “Decisive Plan,” which B’Tselem said provides an ideological and political framework for expanding Israeli control over Palestinian territory.

According to B’Tselem, the plan presented Palestinians with three options: accepting Jewish supremacy while abandoning their political aspirations, leaving, or facing violent suppression if they resisted.

The group said elements of that approach had increasingly been incorporated into Israeli government policy and implemented on the ground.

B’Tselem also pointed to a rise in Palestinian deaths in the West Bank in recent years.

It said Israeli forces killed 1,087 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between Oct. 7, 2023, and June 30, 2026.

B’Tselem called for an end to what it describes as Israel’s system of domination over Palestinians, saying that protecting Palestinian rights requires dismantling the structures underpinning it.