For decades, the international response to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has centred on the search for a political settlement.
Today, this strategy increasingly misses the more urgent issue: Palestinian civilian life and social structures are in grave danger because of the continuing colonisation of Palestine.
In Gaza, a genocidal war has killed more than ۷۴,۰۰۰ people and created the conditions for excess deaths of tens of thousands more. It has wiped out whole neighbourhoods, critical infrastructure and forced the education and healthcare systems into collapse.
In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, different mechanisms of destruction operate: Settler and military violence, forced displacement, restrictions on movement, loss of access to agricultural land and livelihoods, fiscal pressure on Palestinian civil administration, etc.
Taken together, these policies affect the ability of Palestinian communities to continue to exist. For that reason, an international protection force is urgently needed not only to prevent Israeli violence, but to protect Palestinian schools, hospitals, access to livelihoods and access to aid.
Palestinian existence threatened
The colonisation of Palestinian land has been going on for decades. Yet, since October ۲۰۲۳, it has accelerated to the point where Palestinian life in Palestine is made impossible.
Israel is not just killing Palestinians; it is actively destroying every pillar that supports human life: Housing, healthcare, education, livelihood, and security.
The Israeli army has destroyed roughly ۸۱ percent of structures in Gaza, and left ۱.۹ million people displaced, without homes. The vast majority of the Strip’s residents live in tents or makeshift shelters that are unfit for long-term human habitation.
In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, demolitions of homes, conducted under the pretext of absent building permits, have escalated. According to Al-Haq, ۴۶ Palestinian communities were forcibly displaced by Israeli forces and settlers between ۲۰۲۳ and mid-۲۰۲۵. Other communities, including some in the heart of the West Bank, have been severely damaged, including the refugee camps of Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarem. Most recently, Hebron has been besieged and homes there demolished; some ۵,۰۰۰ people have been displaced an at least ۱۲۰ detained.
Heathcare and education are witnessing huge destruction. In Gaza, only ۱۹ of ۳۶ hospitals and only ۷۳ of ۱۵۸ primary health centres remain partially functional. According to UNICEF, ۹۸ percent of Gaza’s schools were destroyed or damaged during the war.
In the occupied West Bank, hospitals are severely underfunded due to Israel withholding tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority (PA). As a result, they operate at reduced capacity, with a growing number of services becoming unavailable, while the hundreds of Israeli checkpoints prevent emergency care from functioning properly.
Education in the West Bank is also under threat. At least ۸۴ schools, including in occupied East Jerusalem, remained under pending demolition or stop-work orders. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of children struggle with Israeli movement restrictions, which often render them unable to reach school.
Palestinian livelihoods have also been devastated. In Gaza, the carpet-bombing campaign has all but destroyed the economy, which was already crippled by the Israeli siege.
In the occupied West Bank, growing settler pogroms, land theft and designations of areas as “security zones” by the Israeli army have cut off Palestinian farmers from their land. Many have been unable to grow crops or harvest for three consecutive years, eliminating their primary income source.
While Palestinian agriculture is collapsing, the World Food Programme has announced it is cutting monthly food rations for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Employment opportunities have significantly shrunk. The Israeli authorities have withdrawn the work and travel permits that allowed Palestinians to work in Israeli enterprises.
While more than ۹۰ percent of Palestinians in Gaza are without work, unemployment in the West Bank has doubled since ۲۰۲۳ by official counts, reaching ۲۹.۵ percent in ۲۰۲۶. This figure is likely an undercount, since workers unemployed for more than a year drop out of labour-force statistics.
Meanwhile, the PA, which is supposed to govern Palestinian life, has been transformed into Israel’s security subcontractor. As of ۲۰۲۶, Israel is withholding an estimated $۴.۸-۵bn in tax and customs revenue collected on the PA’s behalf. It has, however, transferred enough money to ensure the PA’s security apparatus continues to function and actively engage in repression of the Palestinian people on its behalf.
All of this is happening against a backdrop of continuing colonial violence. In Gaza, the Israeli army bombs, shells and shoots at Palestinians daily. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers and soldiers kill, attack, burn and pillage.
If a population loses access to housing, cannot put food on the table, cannot receive healthcare or provide children with education, and faces constant violence, how can it survive? It cannot. And that is the reality Palestinians face today.
The case for a protection force
There is a clear legal basis for deploying a protective force in Palestine given that Israel is in violation of major pillars of international humanitarian law.
The International Court of Justice found that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land is illegal and it needs to be brought to an end.
In a separate ruling, the ICJ held that Israel has an obligation to facilitate aid access into the Gaza Strip – access Israel has actively hindered.
Although advisory opinions are not binding, the fact that they place responsibility squarely on Israel as the occupying power provides a legal basis for demanding that this responsibility be enforced.
What compounds this is that Israel is not only the occupying power but also the party actively working to dismantle the collective civil life and nationhood of the Palestinian people.
So how can a protection force be constituted?
In the United Nations Charter, the Security Council is empowered to approve peace missions, but in the case of Palestine, that is effectively impossible, given the near-certainty of a US veto. A real alternative exists in the ۱۹۵۰ “Uniting for Peace” precedent, under which the General Assembly (UNGA) can recommend collective measures, including the use of force, when the Council is paralysed – a mechanism invoked roughly a dozen times since ۱۹۵۰, most recently on Ukraine in ۲۰۲۲.
Unlike a UNSC resolution, such a recommendation is not binding; its force is political rather than coercive. However, this could give legitimacy to a coalition of states who wish to take action and are willing to deploy and fund a protective force.
This coalition – plausibly including South Africa, which has already led the ICJ genocide case, alongside the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation members – would need to bring this to the UNGA.
This route can be pursued while sustaining pressure on Washington, since durable protection ultimately requires removing US obstruction, not permanently routing around it.
The force that is ultimately deployed in Palestine should have a clear mandate to act on threats to Palestinian life. It should not replicate the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, which operated between ۱۹۹۴ and ۲۰۱۹ and was confined to observing and reporting abuses with no mandate to intervene.
The protective force must instead be mandated to keep Palestinians safe and establish a physical buffer between communities and settlers, with authority to prevent attacks rather than merely document them.
The deployment of such an international protection force must be the priority under the existing situation.
The protection of Palestinian society should be treated as an issue in its own right. Whatever the eventual political settlement, preserving the social, economic and cultural foundations of Palestinian civilian life cannot be deferred until a political settlement arrives.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
