Official and unofficial Israeli actions, alongside a steady stream of statements, unprecedented in their frequency since the war in Gaza began nearly two and a half years ago, point to a coherent Israeli strategy toward Palestinians, in both the West Bank and Gaza, and toward the Palestinian cause as a whole. By tracing these actions and declarations, which together lay bare underlying intentions, this article seeks to lift the veil on Israel’s integrated approach to Palestinians at this stage.

Amid Israel’s deepening internal crisis, driven by disputes over the budget and the military draft exemption law, and by threats from parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to bring down the government, Netanyahu is fighting to keep his coalition intact. “The last thing Israel needs at this stage is an election,” he has said, arguing that the country is in a “sensitive and exceptional” moment that calls for political stability, not an early vote. If the budget fails to pass or the Knesset is dissolved, elections would be brought forward. Under Israeli law, they would have to be held by the end of October this year. Netanyahu is working to shape conditions that would allow him to remain in office. At the same time, he is pressing on with conflicts on multiple fronts, most notably with Lebanon, where he continues to threaten to disarm Hezbollah; with Iran, insisting that Israel will not allow it to regroup; and with the Palestinians, against whom he is waging an open-ended campaign in Gaza and the West Bank, the focus of this article.

An Israeli bill authorising the execution of Palestinians is edging closer to passage, as the number of unlawful killings of Palestinians has surged dramatically since October 2023. The scale of violence in Gaza has risen far beyond any threshold of endurance, while killings in the West Bank have reached levels unseen at any previous moment or phase. At the same time, deaths inside Israeli detention facilities have become a recurring pattern rather than isolated incidents. Taken together, these acts amount, from the point of view of many, to crimes that meet the threshold of genocide and extrajudicial execution, carried out amid complete impunity, with no accountability or punishment. They reflect a growing disregard for Palestinian lives and form part of a fully integrated approach that targets the Palestinian issue as a whole.

Following the approval of the first reading of a new amendment to Israel’s Penal Code,........

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