The Civil Administration (Hebrew: המנהל האזרחי, ha-Minhal ha-ʿEzraḥi; Arabic: الإدارة المدنية الإسرائيلية) is the Israeli governing body that operates in the West Bank. It was established by the government of Israel in 1981, in order to carry out practical bureaucratic functions within the territories captured by Israel in 1967. While formally separate, it was subordinate to the Israeli military.

The Civil Administration is subordinate to a larger entity known as the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which is a unit in the Defense Ministry of Israel. Among its functions are coordination with the Palestinian Authority. After 2002, the distinction set forth in the Oslo Accords restricting Israeli military operations in area A was de facto terminated.

The creation of a civil administration for the West Bank and Gaza Strip was incorporated within the Camp David Accords, signed by Egypt and Israel in 1978. The Civil Administration intended to exchange the military government Israel had established in 1967. The Camp David Accords did not include the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the talks over issues of the Palestinian-claimed territories.

A modification which preceded the actual creation of the body was a change in the "chain of command", consolidating power within the military.

The nature of this body was defined in Military Order No. 947, by the 1981 military government of the West Bank and Gaza:

"We hereby establish a Civil Administration in the region [West Bank]. The Civil Administration shall run all regional civil matters, correspondingly to this [Military] decree, for the wellbeing and for the sake of [local] population, and with the purpose of providing and operating the public services, considering the need to maintain a proper governance and public order".

After the creation of the Civil Administration, civil affairs were not separated with the military. While all the civil branches came under the control of the Civil Administration and did not have to report to the military, in practice, the Civil Administration was subordinate to the military and the Shin Bet. At the managerial level, most of the staffers were Israelis. The internal security service Shin Bet was also deeply involved behind the scenes. Thomas Friedman describes it as a "euphemism for military administration", and it was deeply suspected by Palestinians, who led waves of protests against it. Twenty-five West Bank mayors called for its abolition; the Israeli military arrested the rioters and suppressed the protests.

The military's role extended to appointments, licenses and permits, and legislative powers. The Civil Administration was used as a front to dispense patronage among the occupied population. There was an attempt to create Village Leagues by Menachem Milson in 1978, who later became the head of the Civil Administration. The Village Leagues consisted of "a coalition of rural thugs...who had no standing in the community". The Palestinians saw the Leagues as a collection of collaborators and traitors. Political factions and the PLO were outlawed by the Israeli military, with a conscious policy of "divide and rule". This policy of co-optation was combined with "Iron Fist" operations of the then Defense Minister, Ariel Sharon.