Gaza and the West Bank together comprise the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Its roughly 6.35m-strong populace consists of some 5.56m Palestinians and some 787,000 Israelis in the West Bank, who have settled from surrounding Israel since its foundation in 1948.1,2,3 The two communities live mostly separately from one another, including being subject to different authorities and – for our purposes – statistical bodies. The cement market reflects the divisions, including the on-going war in Gaza since October 2023, triggered by the 7 October 2023 Hamas atrocity, but it also partly cuts across community lines. On 2 November 2026, the OPT became the world’s 167th cement-producing jurisdiction, after Jericho Cement Industry commissioned a new, 1.13Mt/yr grinding plant at An-Nuwai'ma, in Jericho in the West Bank.
Jericho Cement Industry’s LinkedIn page lists the company as a joint venture of Sanad – the industrial arm of the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) – and Jordan-based Unifive. Press coverage of the commissioning also includes Israel-based Isa Khoury Group as a private partner.4 Its subsidiary Isakhoury Metal Industry built the An-Nuwai’ma grinding plant under an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract.5 The PIF intends for the plant to meet 50% of demand in its ‘local cement market.’ Jericho, including An-Nuwai’ma, lies in Area A of the West Bank, where Palestinian development is not formally subject to Israeli intervention.
Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa gave a further indication of the An-Nuwai’ma plant’s intended market in a speech at its inauguration: “The reconstruction process is intended to serve as a starting point for restoring unity between the two parts of the homeland, bringing a dignified life and hope back to Palestinians in Gaza, and strengthening their ability to remain and stand firm on their land.”
By contrast to the separation suggested above, we have here an international entity seemingly building capacity for Gaza and Palestinian parts of the West Bank. This matches a reading of the Israel-based Jerusalem Post, which ran a column on 3 November highlighting the perceived security risk of any such activity.6 According to the column, the Israel-Palestine Joint Economic Committee has reported ‘no coordination’ between its constituent authorities regarding the new plant. Under circumstances where credible evidence emerged of any eventual shipments to Gaza falling into the hands of Hamas (the group currently designated as a terrorist organisation by the US, Canada, Japan, the EU, UK and Israel), the Israeli government would be entitled to demand – at least – an investigation.
Sanad has formerly controlled the major share of the cement market in the OPT through its monopoly on the distribution of Nesher-Isreal Cement Enterprises’ cement from its Ramle cement plant in Central Israel, 16km outside the West Bank.7 It supplied over 80% of annual consumption at times in the past decade. The Ramle plant does not operate excess clinker capacity, however, and Sanad’s public discussions of the An-Nuwai’ma grinding plant position it instead as a recipient of materials from its larger neighbouring cement industry: Jordan. The description on its website’s information page for Jericho Cement Industry could even read as that of a cement bagging operation: “The company aims at packaging and packing bulk cement imported from Jordan into bags to be sold at points of sale.” If this is still part of the plan, it would appear to be running in parallel to the business of clinker grinding. The page explains that the facility is intended to ease bagged cement transport over the King Hussein Bridge Border Crossing between Jordan and the OPT.
Under Israeli trade rules, cement (historically including clinker) is classed as an A1 import into the OPT, along with certain frozen foods and kitchen appliances.8 A monthly quota, reallocated quarterly, is permitted to enter from ‘Egypt, Jordan and other Arab countries.’9 The latest quota volumes remain unpublished, but they have previously amounted to 150,000t/yr.8
In Gaza, the Israeli government has banned cement imports since October 2023.10 Gazans have since resorted to using a recycled cement-based mortar, produced by manually breaking and sifting ‘clay fused with cement dust’ from bombsites. The recipe reportedly includes 60% cement, 15% lime and 10% gypsum. In response to the failure of sanitation infrastructure amidst rainy conditions in November 2026, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are preparing to admit cement and other construction products for ‘urgent repairs,’ alongside routine aid.11
For now, depopulation and displacement continue to suppress construction volumes in some Palestinian areas. Gaza underwent 11% depopulation over a 26-month period following October 2023, from 2.38m, to 2.13m in January 2026.1 ‘Displacement sites’ house 84% of the surviving population, according to the PA.12 The Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics recorded no new building licences in Gaza in the first half of 2026.13
Meanwhile in the West Bank, Palestinians obtained 3660 new building permits in the first half of 2026, up by 18% year-on-year, but down by 26% from a first-half 2023 figure of 4930, reflecting the entire PA-controlled area where construction is permissible.
Not all development in the OPT is permitted – or permissible, in international law terms. In the West Bank, Israeli settlers’ numbers grew by 2% year-on-year in 2025.2,3 In some areas, settlers take up in existing buildings, but residential construction volumes are also increasing, including multiple developments of hundreds of units tendered in 2026 to-date.14 The IDF has built hundreds of kilometres of defensive walls inside the West Bank and deploys concrete blocks across over 600 checkpoints, roadblocks and road gates there.15 It has carried out ready-mix concrete pours into Hamas’ tunnel network in Gaza, including a 30,000m3 pour into a 16km-long ‘command and control centre’ under Rafah in June 2026.16 Another pour that month reportedly caused streets in Al-Maghazi to run with wet concrete, leading to apparent incidents of opportunistic theft.17
Supply chain visibility is low, but operators in settler areas may include Israel-based Atid Beton, which previously acquired ready-mix concrete batching plants at Atarot and Mishor Adumim, West Bank, from Cemex subsidiary Readymix Industries Israel in January 2023.18 Cemex maintains no operating facilities inside the West Bank, the group stated, as seemingly corroborated by its absence from a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights report dated 25 September 2026.19 Rather, the report lists Germany-based Heidelberg Materials and its subsidiary Hanson Israel among 214 ‘business enterprises involved in listed activities’ on grounds of ‘contribution to adverse impact on the right to self-determination’ of Palestinian people. Global Cement has been unable to find any new response from either company to this inclusion. When first they appeared in a former edition dated 26 September 2025, it was as users of ‘natural resources, in particular water and land, for business purposes.’20 Heidelberg Materials had written to the commissioner’s office on 24 September 2025, stating that Hanson Israel had ceased all operations at its Nahal Raba complex in the West Bank, which includes a ready-mix concrete plant and quarry.21
It said “The entire Nahal Raba complex remains closed, and, as of today, Hanson Israel does not operate any active facilities in the OPT, including East Jerusalem.” It concluded: “Given the absence of any current operational presence in these territories, their inclusion in the updated database does not reflect the present situation.” Prior correspondence with the Who Profits Research Team states the date of the closure as November 2023.22 Heidelberg Materials’ denial can be taken to still stand with regards to the 2026 edition.
Throughout 2026, certain of Israel’s trade partners wrote international condemnation of West Bank settlements into their domestic laws, with bans on imports from the settlements. To take the example of Slovenia, which became the first EU country to announce the measure in August 2025, the move may be symbolic: its US$33,500/yr-worth of imports consists entirely of avocados.23 For settler communities, however, it may appear existential. In Israel’s key strategic ally, the US, legislative elections on 3 November 2026 brought in an increased share of representatives and senators who regard the alliance unfavourably.
In its own parliamentary election, the first since the October 2023 Hamas attacks, Israel elected no overall majority to its Knesset on 27 October 2026. On 7 November 2026, President Isaac Herzog instructed liberal Zionist party Yashar! with its leader Gadi Eisenkot to form a government. Eisenkot’s grouping of Zionist opposition parties won 48 seats – 13 short of the necessary majority of 61. Possible permutations may include bringing in conservative Zionist former ruling party Likud (27 seats), Palestinian parties (19 seats) or more fundamentalist Zionist parties Shas and United Torah Judaism (13 seats).24 Regarding policy on the OPT, a base assumption is continuity: Eisenkot is former IDF Chief of General Staff and sat as an observer in the Gaza war cabinet until mid-2024. However, the pace of continued West Bank settlement is still indeterminate. Any resulting coalition will have to navigate a fraught international environment as never before.
Our brief overview of cement in the OPT sets out some intriguing intersections of interests – even without having considered such fascinating areas as international smuggling into both Israel and the OPT, including with the alleged collusion of PA officials… in the former case!25,26 Cement continues to enrich people on both sides – and neither. Across the OPT, cement is weaponised in land-grabs and the infrastructure of restricted movement. Meanwhile, one of the major mass killing and displacements of our time is still underway in Gaza.27 As innovating Gazans demonstrated, rubble is not the end of things. With international will, we can hope for an equitable settlement to begin the rebuild – and bring back communities.
References
1 Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, ‘The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), presents a brief on the status of the Palestinian people at The end of 2025,’ 31 December 2025, https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/Press_En_PalPeopleEnd2025E.pdf
2 Israel National News, ‘Report: Over 5% of Israel's population lives without equal rights,’ 27 February 2026, https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/423077
3 Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights, East Jerusalem in Numbers 2025, https://bimkom.org/media/pages/archives/830e03c43d-1768989102/data-sheet-ej-2025-eng.pdf
4 Wikalat Al-Anba Al-Filastiniya, ‘President Abbas inaugurates first Palestinian cement factory in Jericho,’ 2 November 2026, https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/176566
5 Isakhoury Metal Industry, ‘Built across four decades – Industrial plants,’ accessed 9 November 2026, https://isakhoury.com/#projects
6 The Jerusalem Post, ‘New West Bank cement factory poses major security risk, expert warns,’ 3 November 2026, https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-913730
7 Samir Harb, Exhausted Circulation: The Limits to Cement Transportation and Urban Metabolism in the West Bank, Late 2022, https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/attachments/jps-articles/RPAL_A_2133969_P.pdf
8 Majdi Haj Khalil, Guide to Palestine – Israel Economic and Trade Relations, circa 2007, https://mzv.gov.cz/file/806096/
9 Sanad News, ‘Ministry of Economy opens the door for the import of goods on lists A1 and A2,’ 15 October 2026, https://snd.ps/p/169165
10 The Guardian, ‘‘It fails under testing, but it’s what we have’: ban forces Palestinians to make their own cement from rubble,’ 18 May 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/may/18/gaza-cement-dual-use-israeli-ban-recycling-rubble-reconstruction
11 JFeed News, ‘Israel to allow cement, steel into Gaza,’ 10 November 2026, https://www.jfeed.com/news-israel/to9sg1
12 Anadolu Ajansı, ‘2.1 million people in Gaza need protection during winter: Palestinian minister,’ 9 November 2026, https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/21-million-people-in-gaza-need-protection-during-winter-palestinian-minister/4117381
13 Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics, ‘The Building Licenses in Palestine, Second Quarter 2026,’ 10 September, https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/en/post-details/?postId=27103
14 Xinhua Net News, ‘Israel issues tenders for 823 settlement homes after election, watchdog says,’ https://english.news.cn/20261110/4829fba5183c45ac8d479f3902cd101d/c.html
15 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ‘Movement and Access in the West Bank – April 2026,’ 23 April 2026, https://www.ochaopt.org/content/movement-and-access-west-bank-april-2026
16 Ynet Global News, ‘IDF: 16-kilometer underground tunnel network in Rafah where Hadar Goldin was held has been sealed,’ https://www.ynetnews.com/article/0gqs162m4
17 Middle East Eye, ‘Video: Palestinians rush to collect cement after Israel uses it to seal off tunnel,’ 23 June 2026, https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/video-palestinians-rush-collect-cement-after-israel-uses-it-seal-tunnel
18 Who Profits, ‘Readymix Industries Israel,’ 8 January 2023, https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/company/3778
19 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Agenda item 2, Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General, 25 September 2026, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session63/advance-versions/a-hrc-63-20-aev.pdf
20 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Agenda item 2, Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General, 26 September 2025, https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/60/19
21 Heidelberg Materials, Statement by Heidelberg Materials AG regarding the OHCHR Database Update – Human Rights Council resolutions 31/36 and 53/25, 24 September 2025, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/business/pot-db/78-heidelberg-materials-ag.pdf
22 Heidelberg Materials, Response to Inquiry of June 2025, 14 July 2015, https://www.whoprofits.org/writable/uploads/companies/2025_07_14_HEIDELBERG%20MATERIALS%20response%20to%20Who%20Profits.pdf#1#1#1
23 STA News, ‘Slovenia bans imports from illegal Israeli settlements,’ 6 August 2025, https://english.sta.si/3454333/slovenia-bans-imports-from-illegal-israeli-settlements
24 Al Jazeera, ‘Eisenkot open to Netanyahu joining Israel’s next government,’ 8 November 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/8/israels-president-tasks-eisenkot-to-form-new-coalition-government
25 Manassa News, ‘The cement lifeline: How El-Arish Port sustained Israel’s settlement boom,’ 8 March 2026, https://manassa.news/en/stories/30569
26 Ynet Global News, ‘Hamas smuggling thousands of tons of cement into Gaza through Egypt,’ 16 June 2015, https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4669295,00.html
27 Safa News, ‘Haaretz Reveals Nearly 100,000 Palestinians Killed in Gaza’s Deadliest War,’ 10 July 2025, https://en.safa.news/post/4891/Haaretz-Reveals-Nearly-100-000-Palestinians-Killed-in-Gaza-s-Deadliest-War
