The West Bank (الضفة الغربية, , הגדה המערבית, Hagadah Hamaaravit), also referred to as "Judea and Samaria", is a landlocked territory on the west bank of the Jordan River in the Middle East. Since 1967 most of the West Bank has been under Israeli occupation.
During the Ottoman period, the West Bank formed part of the Emirate of Transjordan, along with the East Bank or Oultrejordain. After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, both sides of the Jordan formed the British Mandate of Palestine. The 1948 Arab-Israeli War saw the establishment of Israel in parts of the former Mandate, while the West Bank was captured and annexed by Jordan. The 1949 Armistice Agreements defined its interim boundary. From 1948 until 1967, the area was under Jordanian rule, and Jordan did not officially relinquish its claim to the area until 1988. It was captured by Israel "In May-June 1967 Eshkol's government did everything in its power to confine the confrontation to the Egyptian front. Eshkol and his colleagues took into account the possibility of some fighting on the Syrian front. But they wanted to avoid having a clash with Jordan and the inevitable complications of having to deal with the predominantly Arab Palestinian population of the West Bank. The fighting on the eastern front was initiated by Jordan, not by Israel. King Hussein got carried along by a powerful current of Arab nationalism. On 30 May he flew to Cairo and signed a defense pact with Nasser. On 5 June, Jordan started shelling the Israeli side in Jerusalem. This could have been interpreted either as a salvo to uphold Jordanian honor or as a declaration of war. Eshkol decided to give King Hussein the benefit of the doubt. Through General Odd Bull, the Norwegian commander of UNTSO, he sent the following message the morning of 5 June: 'We shall not initiate any action whatsoever against Jordan. However, should Jordan open hostilities, we shall react with all our might, and the king will have to bear the full responsibility of the consequences.' King Hussein told General Bull that it was too late; the die was cast." Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, W. W. Norton & Company, 2000, pp. 243-244. during the Six-Day War. With the exception of East Jerusalem it was not annexed by Israel. Most of the residents are Palestinians, although large numbers of Israeli settlements have also been built in the region.
