West Bank

Area (5,879 sq km/2,270 sq mi) on the west bank of the River Jordan; population (1997 est) 1,873,500. Its main cities are Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nablus in the north; Jerusalem, Jericho, and Ramallah in the centre; and Bethlehem and Hebron in the south. The area was captured by Israel from Jordan in 1967; Jordan finally renounced any claim to it in 1988. Israel refers to the area as Judaea and Samaria, and in 2001 75% of the area of the West Bank remained under Israeli military control, protecting the 180,000 Israeli settlers.

The West Bank was held by the Jordanian army in 1948 at the end of the First Arab-Israeli War following the creation of the state of Israel, and formally annexed in 1950. The area was integrated into the kingdom of Jordan, with Palestinians there being given Jordanian passports and citizenship. The West Bank was captured by Israel during the Six-Day War (5-10 June 1967) and placed under military government. There was initially little resistance from the resident Arab Palestinian population, in part due to Israeli improvements in the standard of living, and in part lack of affinity with Jordanians in Jordan's East Bank. However, Israeli settlement of the area picked up pace in the 1980s, creating tensions, and after 1987 as the Intifada (uprising) gained strength in the occupied territories, Israeli military presence increased significantly. In July 1988 Jordan renounced responsibility for the West Bank, having previously recognized the main representative of Palestinians to be the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

In 1993 Israel and the PLO began negotiations in the Israel-Palestine peace process. They agreed to a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and Arab towns and villages in the West Bank and to limited self-rule for Palestinians. The West Bank was divided into three zones: A, where PLO devolved authority was greatest; B, where the Palestine National Authority (PNA) had some limited authority but Israel maintained a security presence and ‘overriding security responsibility’; and C, under military occupation. In May 1994 the PLO assumed control over the Jericho area of the West Bank; in September 1995 Israeli armed forces withdrew from Nablus, Ramallah, Jenin, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, and Bethlehem; and in December 1995 the PLO took over civil administration in Hebron. However, numerous Jewish settlements remained in place in the West Bank under Israeli military protection. The October 1998 Wye Memorandum envisaged, after full implementation, that 17% of the West Bank would fall into Zone A, 24% into Zone B, and 59% into Zone C. The final status of the West Bank has yet to be resolved, with the issue of Jerusalem, claimed as a national capital by both peoples, remaining particularly contentious. There are around 170,000 armed Israeli settlers in the West Bank

During the second Intifada, in 2000-01, Israeli troops temporarily sealed off several West Bank towns, in retaliation for Palestinian bomb explosions in Israel, and there was fierce fighting in Nablus and Ramallah, involving Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships. In August 2001 Israeli troops entered Jenin in the far north, marking the first incursion into a city under full Palestinian control since the 1994 transfer of control.