A new report by the Civil Administration's Inspection Unit summarizing the first half of 2026 shows a sharp and sustained increase in enforcement against illegal Palestinian Arab construction in Judea and Samaria over the past several years.
The report, released Monday, compares the first six months of each year and indicates a steady upward trend in demolition activity: During the first half of 2022, authorities demolished 250 illegal structures.
That figure fell slightly to 201 in the first half of 2023, but rose to 310 demolitions in 2024. The trend continued in 2025, with 443 structures demolished, before reaching a record 536 demolitions during the first half of 2026.
Alongside the increase in demolitions carried out by Israeli authorities, the Settlement Administration says another trend has emerged: More Palestinian Arabs are choosing to demolish illegal structures themselves in order to avoid the arrival of enforcement teams.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry with responsibility for the Settlement Administration, said the figures reflect a deliberate policy shift.
"For years, the State of Israel stood idly by in the face of the 'Salam Fayyad Plan,' whose goal was to create facts on the ground and force the establishment of a Palestinian state through the takeover of state lands and the systematic mass construction of buildings in Area C," Smotrich said.
"Since the beginning of this government's term, we have led a revolution in Judea and Samaria - both by establishing 104 new communities and 160 farms that safeguard more than one million dunams of state land, and by simultaneously declaring an uncompromising war against [the illegal] Arab takeover. The hard work by the Inspection Unit personnel is bearing fruit, and for the first time there are more demolitions than [new] illegal Arab construction. And this is only the beginning - every illegal structure will be removed."