Settler violence and related displacement

Settler violence – figures and trends

From 2023 to 2025, incidents of violence committed by Israeli civilians, almost exclusively residents of Jewish settlements, against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank soared. The frequency, scope, and severity of settler attacks have been on the rise since early 2023, with another surge since the outbreak of the war. The establishment of many new shepherding outposts across the West Bank has also contributed significantly to violence against nearby Palestinian communities.

According to UN data, there were 2,660 settler attacks against Palestinian residents resulting in bodily injury or property damage that occurred between January 2024 and September 2025. In September alone, 142 such incidents were reported. In comparison, 379 such attacks were recorded throughout 2020, 532 in 2021, and 852 in 2022. Security establishment figures, though lower than UN data, also point to a steep and consistent increase in settler violence.​

In the past year, damage to Palestinian farmlands, already prevalent in previous years, has spread further. Dozens of instances have been recorded, including the slaughter or theft of livestock; the destruction or uprooting of thousands of olive trees; and the destruction, confiscation, or theft of water pumping equipment.

Settler attacks on Palestinian olive harvesters and vandalism of olive trees are common during the olive harvest. In October 2025, a record 126 attacks were documented in 70 towns and villages; dozens of Palestinians were injured, and about 4,000 olive trees and saplings were damaged or destroyed. The UN also reported that settlers from new outposts blocked Palestinian access to olive groves in areas where farmers previously did not require military permits.

Settlers target the water supply to Palestinian communities and tens of thousands of homes. For instance, in August 2025, settlers damaged infrastructure supplying water to roughly 100,000 Palestinian residents in villages around Ramallah, leaving them without running water. The coordinated, massive sabotage of water pumps and distribution facilities, as well as of security cameras installed at pumping sites, is sometimes accompanied by physical violence and harassment against Palestinian crews attempting repairs.

Yesh Din’s figures highlight two especially disturbing trends since October 2023:

1. Violent, organized incursions into Palestinian communities: Settler attacks inside Palestinian villages and towns, including mass settler riots, have increased. Since October 2023, at least 25 Palestinian villages in the West Bank have been attacked, some on more than one occasion, in coordinated assaults by large groups of settlers, some armed, who openly set out to harm residents and damage property.

2. The number of Palestinian deaths resulting from settler violence has increased: Between October 2023 and mid-October 2025, at least 33 Palestinians were killed during settler attacks. Some were killed directly by settlers; others were fatally shot by Israeli security forces during incidents that began with settler violence or organized settler activity. To the best of our knowledge, as of this writing no settlers responsible for Palestinian deaths have been indicted.

   
   

State-sanctioned settler violence

As settler violence in the West Bank intensifies in both scope and severity, security forces generally willfully fail to fulfill their duty to stop it. Where forces are present on the scene, soldiers and commanders often stand by and do not intervene. They sometimes protect offenders, or even join them, including firing live ammunition at Palestinians. Attempts to call the police and other security forces are met with evasion or the outright refusal to arrive.

In the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel, settlers were recruited into Regional Defense units, which are tasked with protecting the Jewish population in the West Bank and have received thousands of military-issued firearms for this purpose. This, along with widespread arms distribution led by the Ministry of National Security under Minister Ben Gvir, has had a significant impact on the situation in the West Bank. In many incidents, assailants were filmed or photographed wearing full or partial military uniforms and carrying military-issued firearms or equipment. In such cases, the assailant may be an active-duty reservist soldier, an off-duty reservist or soldier, or neither but still carrying a firearm provided by the local settlement security squads.

For decades, soldiers serving in the West Bank have reported receiving no instructions regarding their authority and legal duty to arrest violent settlers and prevent them from harming Palestinians, Palestinian property, or land.

According to Yesh Din’s findings, settlers carry out violence with near-total impunity: police investigations into settler violence are systematically negligent, and the overwhelming majority of cases (about 94%) end without indictments. Non-enforcement by the police became policy when Itamar Ben Gvir, who denies the existence of settler violence, was appointed Minister of National Security. As a result of government and police policy, Palestinian victims’ trust in Israel’s law enforcement authorities plummeted: in 2024, 66% of Palestinian crime victims chose not to exercise their right to file complaints against Israelis who harmed them.​

In summary, the military’s deliberate failure to stop settler incursions into Palestinian lands and communities combined with minimal enforcement by the police, prosecution, and judicial system; the lack of effective investigation and accountability; and the public and political support for violent settlers by ministers and Members of Knesset, demonstrate that, in practice, settler violence is state-backed.

For further reading:See the account of activist Jonathan Pollak in Haaretz: Lynch Mobs, Arson, Slaughter of Herds: West Bank Faces Unprecedented Israeli ViolenceYesh Din, Law Enforcement on Israeli Civilians in the West Bank (Settler Violence) Twenty Years of Violence: Yesh Din monitoring data 2005-2024 

Forced displacement of Palestinian shepherding communities and ethnic cleansing

The West Bank is peppered with Palestinian shepherding communities that subsist on animal husbandry and agriculture. Beginning in July 2022 and intensifying since the outbreak of the war on October 7, 2023, dozens of these communities have been displaced from their homes and lands or face imminent displacement due to settler violence and the absence of protection or assistance from the Israeli authorities.

According to B’Tselem statistics, from October 7, 2023 through early October 2025, 44 entire communities have been forcibly displaced from their permanent center and lands. Some families have been forced out in 10 more communities. A total of 2,932 people have been expelled, including 1,326 children.​

A joint report by Yesh Din and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) reveals a coordinated strategy involving a combination of tactics: surrounding communities with unauthorized outposts, and inflicting systematic, incessant violence, including physical assaults, threats, stealing and harming livestock and property and blocking access to pastures, water sources, and essential resources. State authorities usually turn a blind eye to these actions, and sometimes abet them by issuing and executing demolition orders for “illegal construction” in communities adjacent to new outposts, or confiscating property. Several legal proceedings seeking protection for shepherding communities are pending before the courts, even as the harm and displacement continue.

The forcible transfer of Palestinians described here is a violation of international law and constitutes a war crime. The state is deeply involved in this process, as reflected in its deliberate failure to prevent the establishment of outposts or the violence perpetrated against shepherding communities. The state also protects settlers in outposts and provides them with services, while at the same time demolishing Palestinian homes and structures on the grounds of “illegal construction.” This involvement, along with the systematic and repeated nature of these actions in various locations, serves as a further indication of practices associated with ethnic cleansing in certain areas of the West Bank.

For further reading, see joint report by Yesh Din and PHRI: Displaced Communities, Forgotten People: Israel’s Forcible Transfer of Palestinians in the West Bank