West Bank

The West Bank is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediterranean in Western Asia that forms the main bulk of the Palestinian territories. It is bordered by Jordan and the Dead Sea to the east and by Israel to the south, west, and north. Under an Israeli military occupation since 1967, its area is split into 165 Palestinian "islands" that are under total or partial civil administration by the Palestinian National Authority, and a contiguous area containing 230 Israeli settlements into which Israeli law is "pipelined". The West Bank includes East Jerusalem. Israel administers the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem as the Judea and Samaria Area district, through the Israeli Civil Administration.

It initially emerged as a Jordanian-occupied territory after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, before being annexed outright by Jordan in 1950, and was given its name during this time based on its location on the western bank of the Jordan River.