West Bank Under Lockdown: A Growing Humanitarian Emergency

Since October 7, 2023, the West Bank has been drawn deeper into the crisis unfolding across Palestine. Israel has imposed an increasingly severe military lockdown, effectively cutting off Palestinian towns and villages behind more than 800 metal gates and concrete barriers. Movement is strangled. Families are trapped. Lives are in limbo.

This tightening of control comes as part of a broader escalation. The West Bank now endures near-daily Israeli military raids, with particular intensity in refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem. Since the beginning of 2025, 137 Palestinians — including 27 children — have been killed in the West Bank. Since the war on Gaza began, the death toll has reached at least 943, according to the United Nations.

In addition to violence from Israeli forces, settler attacks on Palestinian communities have surged. Farmers, aid workers, and families have been harassed, assaulted, and displaced. Roads are blocked, vehicles stoned, and entire neighborhoods terrorized — often under the protection or inaction of the Israeli military.

Aid Obstructed, Lives at Risk

This hostile environment has made it nearly impossible to deliver aid. Road closures, surprise checkpoint shutdowns, and airstrikes make travel unpredictable and dangerous. Humanitarian convoys have been targeted. Warehouses have been raided. Palestinian aid workers are risking their lives simply by doing their jobs.

The consequences are immediate and devastating.

Farmers in the north are being forced to destroy their harvests because they can’t transport them to markets. This loss of income is compounded by rising prices, as basic food items become scarce across the West Bank.

Medical supplies are similarly stuck. Most pharmaceutical warehouses are located in the north, but restrictions on truck movement mean that hospitals in the south — especially in Hebron — are no longer receiving critical medicines. On June 15, one of Hebron’s main hospitals called Anera in desperation: their anesthesia supply had run out, and all surgeries had to be canceled. Patients are being turned away as hospitals run dry.

The shutdown of airports has further choked supply lines, threatening future access to essential items. Anera’s trusted vendors are warning of an impending collapse in availability of basic medical supplies and medicines.

Anera’s Response

In the face of this growing crisis, Anera is taking urgent steps:

• Hiring a full-time safety and security officer to protect our team and partners as they continue their life-saving work under extreme risk.
• Compiling real-time updates from the field to understand the evolving needs of our communities and track the most urgently required supplies.
• Mobilizing donors and procurement channels to begin immediate purchasing of essential medicines and supplies to restock shelves and support overstretched hospitals.

You Can Help

What’s happening in the West Bank is not only a political crisis. It is a humanitarian emergency. Every delay in access, every missed delivery, every canceled surgery means another life is being put at risk.

We need your support to act now.

Your donation today will help us purchase medical supplies for cash-strapped hospitals, support farmers and families under siege, and ensure our teams can operate safely. Together, we can stand with Palestinian communities in the West Bank and bring relief amid lockdown and loss.

👉 Donate now to support Anera’s emergency response in the West Bank.