The Battle to End Palestinian Self-Determination

While the world focuses on the Iran war, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are acutely vulnerable.

As the war between Israel, the United States, and Iran escalates, Palestinians are facing immediate and visible consequences on the ground. For Palestinians, the danger is not only that they become a secondary issue in a rapidly evolving regional order. It is that policies once considered “red lines,” including displacing populations from Gaza or annexing the West Bank, could quietly advance. Without international accountability, the possibility of Palestinian self-determination will continue to erode—and along with it the potential for improved human rights and regional stability.

The war with Iran poses a series of grave and intertwined threats to Palestinians, which are already impacting their daily lives. The humanitarian trajectory in Gaza continues largely out of sight, as diplomatic engagement slows and recovery efforts stall. In Gaza, the fragile cease-fire has not prevented Israel from continuously violating the terms of the agreement. Israel has killed dozens of Palestinians in Gaza since the war began with Iran, and most residents still live in tents, with schools, health services, and public infrastructure largely nonfunctional. In the West Bank, intensified settler violence is further setting the stage for de facto Israeli annexation.

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George Zeidan is the country director for The Carter Center in Israel and Palestine.

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