{ "Introduction": { "Background": { "text": "
The landlocked West Bank -- the larger of the two Palestinian territories -- is home to some three million Palestinians. Inhabited since at least the 15th century B.C., the area currently known as the West Bank has been dominated by a succession of different powers. In the early 16th century, it was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. The West Bank fell to British forces during World War I, becoming part of the British Mandate of Palestine. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Transjordan (later renamed Jordan) captured the West Bank and annexed it in 1950; Israel then captured it in the Six-Day War in 1967. Under the Oslo Accords -- a series of agreements that were signed between 1993 and 1999 -- Israel transferred to the newly created Palestinian Authority (PA) security and civilian responsibility for the many Palestinian-populated areas of the West Bank, as well as the Gaza Strip.
In addition to establishing the PA as an interim government, the Oslo Accords divided the West Bank into three areas, with one fully managed by the PA (Area A), another fully managed by Israel (Area C), and a third with shared control (Area B) until a permanent agreement could be reached between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel. In 2000, a violent intifada, or uprising, began across the Palestinian territories, and in 2001, negotiations for a permanent agreement between the PLO and Israel on final status issues stalled. Subsequent attempts to re-start direct negotiations have not resulted in progress toward determining final status of the area.
The PA last held national elections in 2006, when the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS) won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). Fatah, the dominant Palestinian political faction in the West Bank, and HAMAS failed to maintain a unity government, leading to violent clashes between their respective supporters and to HAMAS's violent seizure of all PA military and governmental institutions in the Gaza Strip in 2007. In 2018, the Palestinian Constitutional Court dissolved the PLC. In recent years, Fatah and HAMAS have made several attempts at reconciliation, but the factions have been unable to implement agreements.
" } }, "Geography": { "Location": { "text": "Middle East, west of Jordan, east of Israel" }, "Geographic coordinates": { "text": "32 00 N, 35 15 E" }, "Map references": { "text": "Middle East" }, "Area": { "total ": { "text": "5,860 sq km" }, "land": { "text": "5,640 sq km" }, "water": { "text": "220 sq km" }, "note": "note: includes West Bank, Latrun Salient, and the northwest quarter of the Dead Sea, but excludes Mt. Scopus; East Jerusalem and Jerusalem No Man's Land are also included only as a means of depicting the entire area occupied by Israel in 1967" }, "Area - comparative": { "text": "slightly smaller than Delaware" }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { "text": "478 km" }, "border countries": { "text": "Israel 330 km; Jordan 148 km" } }, "Coastline": { "text": "0 km (landlocked)" }, "Maritime claims": { "text": "none (landlocked)" }, "Climate": { "text": "temperate; temperature and precipitation vary with altitude, warm to hot summers, cool to mild winters" }, "Terrain": { "text": "mostly rugged, dissected upland in west, flat plains descending to Jordan River Valley to the east" }, "Elevation": { "highest point": { "text": "Khallat al Batrakh 1,020 m" }, "lowest point": { "text": "Dead Sea -431 m" } }, "Natural resources": { "text": "arable land" }, "Land use": { "agricultural land": { "text": "64.9% (2023 est.)" }, "agricultural land: arable land": { "text": "arable land: 7% (2023 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent crops": { "text": "permanent crops: 11.8% (2023 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent pasture": { "text": "permanent pasture: 46.1% (2023 est.)" }, "forest": { "text": "1.8% (2023 est.)" }, "other": { "text": "32.1% (2023 est.)" }, "note": "note: includes Gaza Strip" }, "Irrigated land": { "text": "(2013) 151 sq km; note - includes Gaza Strip" }, "Major lakes (area sq km)": { "salt water lake(s)": { "text": "Dead Sea (shared with Jordan and Israel) - 1,020 sq km