Visualising how Israel keeps stealing Palestinian land

In 2024, amid its conflict with Gaza, Israel illegally seized 23.7 sq km (9.15 sq miles) of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. This marks the largest single seizure in over 30 years, including 12.7 sq km (4.9 sq miles) in the Jordan Valley. The move, orchestrated by Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, adds to more than 50 sq km (19.3 sq miles) taken since 1998. On July 2, Israeli authorities announced the largest single seizure in more than 30 years – 12.7sq km (4.9sq miles) in the Jordan Valley. It was the latest in a series of land grabs announced this year by Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who oversees settlement planning. Israel has seized more than 50sq km (19.3sq miles) of Palestinian land since 1998 according to Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog. In this visual explainer, Al Jazeera unpacks the land Israel has stolen from Palestinians. 1917 – Pre-British Mandate Palestine When the Ottoman rule of the Levant ended, Jewish people owned about 3 percent of the land in Palestine. The mandate facilitated Jewish immigration from Europe to Palestine from the 1910s to the 1940s, bringing the Jewish population of Palestine to 33 percent by 1947. Historical Palestine was 26,790sq km, about the size of Haiti (27,750sq km). Divided into 100 squares, it would look like this: 1948 – Nakba On May 14, 1948, the British Mandate expired and Zionist leaders announced they would be declaring a state, triggering the first Arab-Israeli war. Zionist gangs expelled some 750,000 Palestinians and captured 78 percent of the land. The remaining 22 percent was divided into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 1967 – Naksa During the June 1967 war, Israel occupied all of historical Palestine – including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem – the Syrian Golan Heights and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Shortly after the war, Israel started establishing settlements in territories it occupied, violating the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its population to the area it occupies. 1980 – Israel annexes East Jerusalem East Jerusalem is on the Palestinian side of the 1949 Armistice Line – or Green Line – the generally recognised boundary between Israel and the occupied West Bank. 1993-1995 Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords, the first direct Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement, led to the formation of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was meant to govern internal security, administration and civilian affairs in areas of self-rule for a five-year interim period. Under Oslo, the occupied West Bank was divided into three areas: 2002 – Israel's separation wall In 2002, Israel began constructing a wall that snakes more than 700km (435 miles) through the West Bank, dividing villages, encircling towns and splitting families from each other. Israel says the wall is for security but it doesn't follow the Green Line, 85 percent of it built on occupied West Bank territory. 2024 – Further land grabs and illegal settlements About 700,000 settlers live in some 300 illegal settlements and outposts dotting the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Finance minister – and a settler himself – Smotrich was incensed by five countries recognising the state of Palestine. In retaliation, he said: 'For every country that unilaterally recognises a Palestinian state, we will establish a settlement,' pledging a million new settlers in the occupied West Bank to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state. The settlements and their infrastructure, including Israeli-only bypass roads, occupy about 35 percent of the land in East Jerusalem and about 10 percent of the West Bank.