Oslo Accords Repeal — Israel’s far-right political establishment is pushing to formally dismantle the legal architecture of the Palestinian peace process, as settler violence across the occupied West Bank intensifies and the death toll in Gaza mounts toward historic levels.
The Israeli Knesset Ministerial Committee approved a bill on Sunday that would repeal the 1993 Oslo Accords, the foundational agreements that established the Palestinian Authority and divided the West Bank into administrative zones. The legislation was submitted by Limor Son Har-Melech, a far-right parliamentarian, and would also encourage Israeli settlement expansion into Areas A and B — territories currently under Palestinian civil or security control.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made no effort to conceal the government’s broader ambitions. ‘We are building the Land of Israel and destroying the idea of a Palestinian state,’ he declared on Friday, a statement that drew immediate international condemnation. Justice Minister Yariv Levin expressed support for the Oslo repeal bill, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested parliament delay formal debate on the measure — a move widely interpreted as tactical rather than principled, aimed at managing diplomatic fallout rather than opposing the bill’s intent.
Recommended Reading
On the ground, the consequences of that political direction are already visible. Israeli forces uprooted 3,000 Palestinian-planted trees in the West Bank to facilitate illegal settlement expansion. Settlers used bulldozers to destroy hundreds of olive trees overnight in the village of Jalud in the northern West Bank. In Bardala, in the Jordan Valley, Israeli forces accompanied by bulldozers demolished 1.4 hectares of greenhouses and destroyed water pipelines, causing losses estimated at more than one million shekels — approximately $344,610.
The pace of settler attacks has reached alarming levels. More than 760 incidents have been documented in the West Bank in 2026, averaging six per day, according to United Nations figures. At least 44 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank this year, 13 of them by settlers. Nearly 2,000 Palestinians — including close to 900 children — have been displaced by settler violence and access restrictions.
Individual incidents have shocked international observers. Armed settlers marched through the villages of Abwein and Jilijliya near Ramallah, seizing the Ein Sala spring and blocking residents from accessing it. A new illegal outpost was established on land belonging to an Islamic religious endowment in Deir Istiya, in the Salfit governorate. Another outpost was reported under construction on May 11 in Rammun, east of Ramallah. Settlers occupied a donor-funded football pitch in Umm al-Khair in Masafer Yatta on May 9, chanting religious verses. In Khirbet Abu Falah, settlers staged a predawn raid, torching a car and spray-painting the word ‘revenge’ on a house wall.
Perhaps the most disturbing episode involved an 80-year-old Palestinian man named Hussein Asasa, who had died of natural causes and been buried with permits coordinated with Israeli security forces. Settlers subsequently forced his family to exhume and rebury him, citing the proximity of the grave to the recently resettled Tarsala outpost. Ajith Sunghay, head of the United Nations Human Rights Office, described the incident as ‘horrifying.’
Oslo Accords Repeal: Regional Implications
In Gaza, the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. At least 13 Palestinians were killed during the week covered by this report, bringing the total killed since the October ceasefire collapsed to more than 854. The cumulative death toll since October 2023 now exceeds 72,740. Among the dead this week was Azzam al-Hayya, son of Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, who died Thursday from injuries sustained in an Israeli strike on Gaza City. A child was killed in Gaza City on May 5. Two police officers died in a drone strike on a police vehicle in Khan Younis on Monday, and three Palestinians were killed in a strike on Maghazi refugee camp.
The European Union condemned Israel’s expansion of the so-called ‘orange line’ restricted zone, which now encompasses more than 60 percent of the Gaza Strip. On Monday, EU member states agreed on a new package of sanctions targeting violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Hamas officials. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar dismissed the measures as being ‘without any basis,’ rejecting the bloc’s authority to hold Israeli citizens accountable for documented acts of violence.
The convergence of legislative moves against the Oslo framework, escalating settler activity, and continued military operations in Gaza has deepened fears among Palestinian leaders and international observers that a two-state solution is being systematically foreclosed — not through negotiation, but through facts imposed on the ground.
