Area A, Area B, and Area C
The three zones into which the 1995 Oslo II Interim Agreement divided the occupied West Bank: Area A under Palestinian civil and security control, Area B under Palestinian civil and Israeli security control, and Area C — about 60 percent of the territory — under full Israeli control.
The Israeli–Palestinian Interim Agreement of 28 September 1995 (“Oslo II”) carved the West Bank into three zones as a temporary arrangement pending a final-status settlement due within five years. Area A, roughly 18 percent of the territory, comprised the main Palestinian cities, where the new Palestinian Authority (PA) assumed civil and security control. Area B, roughly 22 percent, covered most Palestinian towns and villages, where the PA ran civil affairs while Israel retained overriding security control. Area C — everything else, about 60 percent, including all Israeli settlements, the Jordan Valley, and most open land — remained under full Israeli civil and military control.
In Area C, Israel controls planning, construction, water, and natural resources. Palestinian construction there requires Israeli permits that are rarely granted, and homes, wells, and other structures built without them are subject to demolition; UN monitors describe the resulting displacement pressure as a “coercive environment.” Most settlement blocs, military firing zones, and nature reserves — categories from which Palestinians are largely excluded — also lie in Area C.
The zone system was designed to dissolve into final-status negotiations by 1999, but those talks never concluded. A quarter-century later the Areas still structure daily life: Israel’s fragmented enclaves of PA rule in Areas A and B are surrounded by an ever more consolidated Area C, which critics describe as de facto annexation, while successive Israeli governments have treated the division as a durable framework rather than a transitional one.
Sources
Cited works
2- btselem.org — area c(opens in a new tab)https://www.btselem.org/area_c
- ochaopt.org — area c key humanitarian concernsPDF(opens in a new tab)https://www.ochaopt.org/sites/default/files/area_c_key_humanitarian_concerns.pdf
Connected in the archive
12 connected records12 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
names this record — 11 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- al-Birehالبيرة
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Under Oslo II al-Bireh was divided: 8,157 dunums, 39.8 per cent of the city, classified Area A where the Palestinian Authority holds responsibility for internal security, and where most of the population lives; 1,033 dunums Area B; the remainder Area C.
- ar-Ramالرام
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Under Oslo II the town was split into Area B — 2,226 dunums, a third of its land, holding most of its population — and Area C, 4,482 dunums where Israel retains full control and Palestinian building requires a permit from the Civil Administration.
- Hafrada
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: In Area C — about sixty percent of the West Bank, under full Israeli control — Israeli settlements are connected to water, electricity and roads while adjacent Palestinian communities are refused permits for houses, wells, clinics and schools, and the structures they build anyway are demolished.
- It is a conflict between two equal sides, both with legitimate grievances
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Area C, under full Israeli civil and military control, covers more than 60 per cent of the West Bank.
- Military Order 291 (1968)
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: On 11 May 2025 the Israeli Security Cabinet took Decision B/187, "Land Settlement in the Judea and Samaria Area", instructing the military commander to resume settlement of title and to repeal Order 291 outright; a further government resolution of 15 February 2026 launched the process in Area C, with a stated objective of settling 15 per cent of unregistered West Bank land within four years.
- Norwegian Refugee Council — Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA), Palestine
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: - Reach across the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, including communities in Area C.
- and 5 more
named in this record — 1 record
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Oslo II and the Division of the West Bank
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: The Israeli–Palestinian Interim Agreement of 28 September 1995 ("Oslo II") carved the West Bank into three zones as a temporary arrangement pending a final-status settlement due within five years.
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“Area A, Area B, and Area C.” Glossary, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/glossary/area-a-b-c.- MLA
“Area A, Area B, and Area C.” Glossary, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/glossary/area-a-b-c. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-area-a-b-c, title = {Area A, Area B, and Area C}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/glossary/area-a-b-c}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }