The Court found that Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful under international law. It also stated that the Palestinian territories constitute one territorial unit and that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has continued since 1967; Gaza was part of the same occupied territory, and Israel’s disengagement did not end the occupation for legal purposes.

The Court stated that Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are contrary to international law, and that the Palestinian territory as a whole has been occupied since 1967. Its analysis treats Gaza and the West Bank as part of the same occupied territorial unit for the purposes of the advisory opinion.

The United Nations, international human rights organizations, International Court of Justice, European Union, International Criminal Court, most of the international community and most legal academics and experts regard the Gaza Strip to still be under military occupation by Israel, as Israel still maintains direct control over Gaza's air and maritime space, six of Gaza's seven land crossings, a no-go buffer zone within the territory, and the Palestinian population registry. ... In early January 2024, Israel reoccupied most of the northern Gaza Strip... also the beginning of the Israeli reoccupation of the Gaza Strip, some 19 years after Israel had disengaged from the Gaza Strip in 2005. ... In late January 2024, Benjamin Netanyahu said that he "will not compromise on full Israeli control" over Gaza.

GENEVA/NEW YORK – The Israeli government has demonstrated a clear and consistent intent to establish permanent control over the Gaza Strip, to secure a Jewish majority in areas under its control ‘from the river to the sea’, and to pursue the erasure of Palestinian national identity. ... “The Israeli government’s openly stated intentions, its actions in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, and the complete disregard for the rights and lives of Palestinians are indicative of an intent to maintain permanent occupation and domination over Palestinians,” said Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese. ... She noted that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Gaza, has been found unlawful by the International Court of Justice, which ordered Israel to end its presence ‘as rapidly as possible’.

The ICRC’s longstanding position is that, since 1967, Israel occupies the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza, which constitute the occupied Palestinian territory. The ICRC considers Gaza to remain occupied territory because Israel still exercises effective control over the Strip, notably over borders, airspace, sea access, and land crossings except the border with Egypt.

The consequences of Israel’s apartheid system on Palestinians and of its unlawful occupation of Gaza and the West Bank are growing more deadly and destructive. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed and seriously injured in the occupied Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023. ... Since Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, first began in June 1967, Israel’s ruthless policies of land confiscation, illegal settlement and dispossession, coupled with rampant institutionalized discrimination, have inflicted immense suffering on Palestinians, depriving them of their basic rights. This military occupation is a key component of a cruel system of apartheid that oppresses and dominates all Palestinians whose rights Israel controls.

Palestinian territory – encompassing the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem – has been occupied by Israel since 1967. ... In July the International Court of Justice found Israel’s presence in the OPT unlawful: Israel should bring it to an end as rapidly as possible, cease settlement activities, evacuate settlers, and make reparations. In September the General Assembly demanded that Israel end its occupation in 12 months. ... On 16 September, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel issued a new report stating that “Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”.

The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has been under military occupation by Israel since 7 June 1967, when Israeli forces captured the territory, then occupied by Jordan, during the Six-Day War. The West Bank is part of the state of Palestine, and its status as a militarily occupied territory has been affirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and, with the exception of East Jerusalem, by the Israeli Supreme Court. Considered to be a classic example of an "intractable conflict", Israel's occupation is now the longest in modern history.

This study deals with two parcels of territory that form an integral part of Palestine and which were occupied by Israel in 1967. “That all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War …” “The situation existing in the territories occupied by Israel as a result of the hostilities in June 1967 is one of occupation of territories falling within the jurisdiction of three foreign states. This type of situation is governed by the Geneva Conventions of 1949, to which Israel is a party and which are applicable in the occupied areas.”

The UN General Assembly endorsed the ICJ advisory opinion and called on Israel to end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory within 12 months. The resolution refers to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as part of the same occupied Palestinian territory.

The Gaza Strip is Palestinian land that has been under Israeli military occupation since the June 1967 war. According to international law and the terms of the Oslo Accords, Gaza is considered a single territorial unit with the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem, which have also been under Israeli military occupation since 1967. Although Israel unilaterally withdrew its occupying army and settlers from the interior of Gaza in 2005, Israel continued to be an occupying power in Gaza under international law because Israel’s military continued to retain effective control of Gaza’s borders, airspace, and coastline. Israel’s continued status as an occupying power in Gaza has been affirmed repeatedly by the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and human rights groups.

A July 2024 ICJ advisory opinion details that Israel’s continued presence in the OPT is unlawful, asserts Israel must end its presence as rapidly as possible, immediately cease new settlement activities and evacuate all settlers. ... Palestinian territory – encompassing the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem – has been occupied by Israel since 1967. ... Israel has consistently defied these orders and its obligations as an occupying power under International Humanitarian Law (IHL).

For half a century, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip has resulted in systematic human rights violations against Palestinians living there. Since the occupation first began in June 1967, Israel’s ruthless policies of land confiscation, illegal settlement and dispossession, coupled with rampant discrimination, have inflicted immense suffering on Palestinians, depriving them of their basic rights. Israel’s military rule disrupts every aspect of daily life in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The General Assembly voted to demand that Israel bring to an end without delay its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The vote followed the ICJ’s finding that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is unlawful.

The Occupied Territories, which include the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, are subject to the jurisdiction of Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). ... The Gaza Strip officially comes under the jurisdiction of an interim PA government, although Hamas exercises de facto authority over it. ... Israeli military law applies when the Israeli military operates in the West Bank, including in Area A, despite Oslo II Accord provisions.

Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the Israeli army conquered it during the 1967 war. Israel’s Supreme Court recognizes that the law of belligerent occupation applies in the occupied territories, and Ariel Sharon acknowledged the occupation as a “terrible thing” while Prime Minister. In a litany of UN Security Council resolutions – including 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 446 (1979), 452 (1979), 465 (1980), 476 (1980), 478 (1980), and 2334 (2016) – the international community has affirmed that the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza are “occupied” and Israel is the “occupying Power.”

According to Article 42(1) of the Hague Regulations, “Territory is considered to be occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army.” The foregoing analysis indicates that, for the purpose of determining whether a territory remains occupied under international law, the decisive criterion is not whether the occupying Power retains its physical military presence in the territory at all times but rather whether its authority “has been established and can be exercised”. The Court recalls that it found in the Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem that, after the withdrawal of its military presence in 2005, “Israel remained capable of exercising, and continued to exercise, certain key elements of authority over the Gaza Strip”, and that Israel’s obligations under the law of occupation “have remained commensurate with the degree of its effective control over the Gaza Strip” (Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024).

According to international law, occupation means a situation when, during an international armed conflict, a territory, or parts thereof, comes under the effective provisional control of a foreign power, even if it is not met with armed resistance. Once a state exercises effective control over a foreign territory, a key condition for an occupation has been met. Traditionally the presence of foreign forces is considered to be the way in which control over a foreign territory is established and exercised as it gives the Occupying Power the capability and obligation to administer the territory and its population. Occupation is deemed to be temporary and does not give the Occupying Power sovereignty.

During the 1967 war Israel occupied the West Bank and established a military administration throughout the area, except in East Jerusalem, which Israel incorporated into itself, extending Israeli citizenship, law, and civil administration to the area. In the remaining areas of the West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a military order that prohibited the display of political symbols and the distribution of political publications and restricted public gatherings, preventing civil resistance to Israeli authorities for much of the first decade of Israeli occupation. In 2000, despite expectations of autonomy by the end of the previous decade, the PA controlled less than one-fifth of the West Bank, while Israeli occupation (in some areas, combined with PA local administration) continued in the remainder.

The situation in the OPT is primarily governed by two international legal regimes: international humanitarian law (including the rules of the law of occupation) and international human rights law. Israel’s policy of settling its civilians in occupied Palestinian territory and displacing the local population contravenes fundamental rules of international humanitarian law. Most states and international bodies have long recognized that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The European Union (EU) has clearly stated that: “settlement building anywhere in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, is illegal under international law, constitutes an obstacle to peace and threatens to make a two-state solution impossible.”

When defending their actions in the Occupied Territories before the Supreme Court of Israel, counsel for the authorities have consistently relied on the customary law of belligerent occupation, as reflected in the Hague Regulations. The Supreme Court has held time and again that the regime of the West Bank is a regime of belligerent occupation. Nevertheless, before international bodies, relying on the Blum-Rostow theory, government lawyers argue that the law of belligerent occupation does not apply de jure but that the authorities apply this law on grounds of policy. However, this does not in any way imply that the territory taken in the course of the war is not occupied territory in which the international law of belligerent occupation applies.

Israel has formally annexed the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, taken from Syria and Jordan, respectively, in 1967, and treats the civilian populations there differently from the West Bank. Unlike the Golan and East Jerusalem, Israel has not formally annexed the West Bank, which it captured from Jordan in the 1967 war and has militarily occupied ever since. Today, more than 400,000 Israelis live in over 250 settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which the international community considers illegal under international law.

By definition, situations of occupation are created by the occupying power exercising actual authority over a portion of territory outside its borders. The factual situation giving rise to occupation is defined in Article 42 of the 1907 Hague Regulations, according to which “Territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army. The occupation extends only to the territory where such authority has been established and can be exercised.” International jurisprudence has applied this test in assessing whether territories, including the Palestinian territories, are under occupation.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 reiterated that both the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza remain occupied territories under international law. The rapporteur stated that Israel exercises control over Gaza’s airspace, territorial waters, population registry and borders, maintaining "effective control" despite the 2005 disengagement. He concluded that Israel’s conduct amounts to maintaining an occupation over both territories.

International law is meant to provide a modicum of protection to people who are otherwise defenseless. While Israel is subject to international law in its actions in the Occupied Territories, it relies on convoluted legal argumentation to circumvent these duties. Human rights organizations and most states regard the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip as occupied territories in which Israel is the occupying power. Israel disputes the de jure applicability of occupation law in some forums, but its own Supreme Court has repeatedly applied the law of belligerent occupation to the West Bank regime.

In the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel faces a choice between three strategic alternatives... or occupying the Strip and imposing a temporary military administration, with the hope that this will also result in the release of the hostages. ... Proponents of this option argue that Israel should impose its terms on the Strip through a temporary occupation and the establishment of a military government that would handle the needs of the residents for a period of about two years. ... One involves seizing about 70% of Gaza and imposing military administration there... The second is a full occupation and unified military administration.

Israel has approved sweeping measures expanding its control over the occupied West Bank, in a move widely considered a violation of international law. Some of the most consequential steps include allowing the direct purchase of Palestinian land by Israeli settlers and allowing the Israeli government to sell lands that belong to Palestinians. Many are warning the latest measures will accelerate Israeli attempts to annex the territory.

According to international humanitarian law, a territory is considered occupied when it is placed under the authority of a hostile army, which must have effective control over the area. In the case of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Israel maintains direct military presence, controls borders, movement, and key civil affairs, and this is widely described in international law and diplomacy as an ongoing occupation. In Gaza, although Israel withdrew its permanent ground forces and settlements in 2005, it has retained control over airspace, maritime access, most land crossings, and the population registry, which many legal bodies and experts cite as elements of continuing occupation.