West Bank Humanitarian Access Snapshot | January - December 2025

In 2025, humanitarian access constraints continued impeding aid delivery and receipt across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. During the year, partners operating in the area reported 683 humanitarian access incidents through the Access Monitoring and Reporting Framework (AMRF),1 which collects and logs access impediments in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

The most frequently reported access constraint was restriction of movement within the West Bank (457 incidents), primarily linked to Israeli checkpoints and road closures, among other physical and administrative obstacles. Unsafe operational environment (74 incidents), mostly related to militarized operations and settler-related incidents, continued to affect humanitarian response predominantly in the northern West Bank. Other cases involved violence against humanitarian personnel and assets (65 incidents), restriction of movement into the West Bank (56 incidents), and operational interference (24 incidents). Together, these incidents amounted to over 428 hours (53 workdays) of time lost.

Humanitarian access is essential for organizations to reach people in need and to ensure people in need can access humanitarian assistance and services. In 2025, partners reported only seven incidents under restrictions on affected populations’ access to services and assistance in the AMRF, which does not reflect the severity of the constraint but rather under-reporting, as these issues are largely captured through other monitoring mechanisms and not comprehensively reported within the AMRF.

Access incidents were reported across all areas of the West Bank, with the highest number recorded in the southern West Bank (259 incidents), followed by the northern West Bank (205 incidents), with 162 incidents occurring in the central governorates. The rest (57 incidents) were recorded at crossings or were related to movement to and from the West Bank.

Bureaucratic administrative impediments remained a persistent challenge, including delays and denials related to visas, interrogations at crossings, and registration requirements. Since October 2023, permits for humanitarian staff to access East Jerusalem from other parts of the OPT have been severely restricted, resulting in quotas that are insufficient to meet the operational needs of humanitarian partners. Restrictions affecting UNRWA, including legislative and administrative measures, further affected humanitarian operations in the West Bank. In March 2025, Israeli authorities introduced a new registration system for international NGOs (INGOs) that fundamentally undermines the continuation of humanitarian operations throughout the OPT. Under the current framework, dozens of INGOs have seen their existing registration with Israeli authorities expire as of 31 December, while their status under the new registration system remains unresolved. While INGOs operate in the OPT through registration with the Palestinian Authority, the absence of valid registration with Israeli authorities is likely to trigger significant additional impediments to the humanitarian response.