Israel and the Levant — Palestinian Authority

Summary

The PLO and Israel recognised each other in 1993 and deferred borders, Jerusalem and settlements to permanent-status talks that never concluded. The 1995 interim agreement divided the West Bank into Areas A, B and C, with Area C — about 60 per cent — under full Israeli civil and security control; it was meant to last five years and has not been replaced. The ICJ's advisory opinion of 19 July 2024 found Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful (11–4), said it must end "as rapidly as possible", and found that Israel must cease new settlement activity and evacuate settlers (14–1); the opinion is not binding, and Israel rejects it. Israeli decisions since 2025 run the other way: final approval of the E1 plan beside Ma'ale Adumim on 20 August 2025 and a tender for 1,234 units in August 2026; a security-cabinet decision of 11 May 2025 ordering land-title settlement resumed in Area C, and a government decision of 15 February 2026, read in draft, assigning it to the Justice Ministry's registration authority with a target of 15 per cent of unsettled land by 2030; and a reported security-cabinet package of 8 February 2026 on land sales, registers and planning powers. Israel presents these measures as clarifying land rights; the PA, Arab governments and Israeli rights groups describe them as steps toward annexation. Several states recognised the State of Palestine in September 2025; recognition did not change who administers the ground.

Why it matters

The interim arrangement's boundaries are the West Bank's operating map — who issues permits, demolishes, registers land and polices — and the current change is administrative rather than declared. Whether Israeli sovereignty bills advance in the Knesset elected on 27 October 2026, and whether the land decisions are implemented by military order, are what would move this relationship.

Related events

• Mutual recognition and the Oslo Declaration of Principles 9 – 13 Sep 1993

  Diplomatic · Political

• Oslo II divides the West Bank into Areas A, B and C 28 Sep 1995

  Political · Territorial change

• Resolution 2334 on Israeli settlements 23 Dec 2016

  Diplomatic · Territorial change

• The ICJ advises that Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful 19 Jul 2024 (UNGA ES-10/24, 18 Sep 2024)

  Diplomatic · Territorial change

• Israel restarts land registration in Area C 15 Feb 2026 (precursor 11 May 2025)

  Territorial change · Political

What remains unknown

• The adopted text and number of the 15 February 2026 decision, and whether the military-order amendments implementing it have been signed, are not established; the decision was read in draft.
• The 8 February 2026 security-cabinet package has no published primary text; its contents are reported.
• The Attorney General kept the E1 tender's 19 October bid deadline but postponed evaluation and award until after the election, according to Israeli press; petitions against the postponement are pending.
• Area shares (A, B, C) are commonly cited figures, not re-measured for this record.

Readings the evidence also supports

• The land and planning measures can be read as administration of territory Israel already controls, as Israel's government presents them, or as annexation by administrative means, as their critics do. The record states the measures and both readings and adopts neither.

Listed because the record's own assessment is not the only one its sources permit — not as a hedge on the assessment above.