From the onset of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, settlers have launched violent attacks against Palestinians across various areas in the West Bank. Since October 7th until the end of last year, approximately 750 attacks by settlers have been carried out against Palestinians throughout the occupied West Bank territories.
Due to the violence perpetrated by settlers in the West Bank, 198 Palestinian families from around 15 Bedouin pastoral communities were displaced, totaling 1,208 individuals, including 586 children.
Amir Daoud, the Documentation Director at the Palestinian Anti-Wall and Settlement Commission, told Al Jazeera Net that there has been a very significant and alarming increase in settler attacks compared to previous years. Since the beginning of October 2023 to date, 745 assaults have been documented.
Daoud also mentioned that the number of young men who have been killed by settler-fired bullets across the West Bank since the beginning of 2023 has reached 22 martyrs, including 10 since October 7th.
According to Daoud, this year, citizens were prevented from accessing approximately 134,000 dunams of farmland near the settlements for olive harvesting, in addition to another 295,000 dunams of land behind the separation wall.
Escalating Violence
Suhail Khalilieh, the Director of the Settlement Monitoring Unit at the Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), noted that since the beginning of 2023, in the West Bank and Jerusalem, they have documented over 200 Israeli plans to build more than 25,000 settlement units on more than 13,000 dunams.
He added that more than two thousand attacks by settlers have been recorded since the beginning of the year, with the majority occurring in the last three months, highlighting an increase in settler violence, both in number and nature, including firearm assaults and physical attacks.
Since the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood, Israeli government ministers have made several decisions, prompting settlers to increase their attacks against Palestinians and their properties. Key among these policies is the weapons distribution plan being carried out by the National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the buffer zone plan around the settlements sought by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Obstruction of Laws
For his part, Bashar Qaryouti, an activist in the "Anti-Settlement Resistance" in the south of Nablus, tells Al Jazeera Net that the frequency of attacks in the central region of the West Bank has surged significantly, with settlement collectives nurturing "Price Tag" gangs who have utilized the security situation to retaliate against villages located among extreme settlement outposts.
Qaryouti explained that arming settlers and enlisting them in the army has given them the authority to shoot at civilians, raid homes, and vandalize properties. He pointed to the assaults by settlers on the town of Qusra near Nablus, resulting in the death of five citizens and about 20 injuries.
He also highlighted a severe concern: human rights institutions have ceased operations, and the Israeli police have stopped accepting complaints. Settlers are granted full protection by the police, the army, and the government.
Below is an account of some violations and assaults perpetrated by settlers against Bedouin communities in the West Bank since the start of the Israeli aggression on Gaza.
New settlement units in the town of Sinjil north of Ramallah constructed during the war (Al Jazeera)
Wadi Al-Siq
The Bedouin community "Wadi Al-Siq" east of Ramallah, home to about 40 Palestinian families, is one of the most affected Bedouin gatherings displaced during the war on Gaza.
Abdul Rahman Ka'abneh, head of the "Wadi Al-Siq" community, recounts that the attacks by settlers began a year ago and included assaults on pastures, homes, livestock, and the army's arrest of young men. However, the situation changed after the aggression on Gaza.
In his conversation with Al Jazeera Net, Ka'abneh said that settlers who were used to being seen as civilians and shepherds in the area wore military uniforms and were armed. They began raiding the community and imposing curfews to the extent of prohibiting exits from within a tent for more than 10 meters.
On the night of October 12th last year, they attacked the community, beating the young men and firing shots into the air. They expelled the residents without allowing them to take anything except some livestock.
During that night, 40 families were displaced, taking over homes, water tanks, vehicles, solar panels, and everything else. "The scene was similar to the Nakba, where we walked for three hours at night until we reached the outskirts of the town of Ramoun east of Ramallah," one resident said.
East of the Allon Line
Journalist Fares Ka'abneh reports that all communities located in the eastern strip of the "Allon" settlement line, which separated the West Bank lands and the territories occupied in 1948 and stretches across the center of the West Bank from the "Zaatara" checkpoint south of Nablus to the "Karmelu" checkpoint east of Ramallah, have been evacuated.
He told Al Jazeera Net that this area is historically a distribution center for Bedouin communities and is central to Palestinian rural life. The displacement process of Bedouin communities in the east Ramallah area began about two years ago, and to date, 11 Bedouin settlements have been evacuated, some of which have been present since the 1950s.
He explained that these communities have endured continuous attacks, denial of access to water sources or grazing areas, livestock theft, and ongoing demolition. They live in perpetual danger.
Remnants of demolished Palestinian homes in the Masafer Yatta area (Al Jazeera)
Masafer Yatta
The situation in "Masafer Yatta" south of Hebron is much the same. According to Fuad Amour, coordinator of "Protection and Steadfastness Committees," the strategy of the occupation since October 7th is strategic. Settlers have taken control of all lands the occupation planned to seize before the war through the Civil Administration, under legal pretexts.
He stated that the settlers had been organizing their ranks over the past years and took advantage of this war to increase their numbers, with most now serving as soldiers and donning military uniform throughout the area.
In his interview with Al Jazeera Net, Amour mentioned that the settlers enact various forms of assaults. Collectively, these have redrawn the map for all communities in Masafer Yatta and led to the complete displacement of the "Zanuta" and Khirbet Wadi communities, among others.
Furthermore, settlers have set up numerous tents on hilltops, resulting in control over tens of dunams of surrounding land.
Northern Jordan Valley
Settler attacks in the Northern Jordan Valley resulted in the displacement of about 22 Palestinian families, specifically from the areas south of "Ein Shibli," south of "Nassariya," and the regions of "Samra" and "Farsiya" and "Khallet Hamad."
Aref Daraghmeh, a human rights activist in the Northern Jordan Valley, indicates that over 50 other Palestinian families fear returning to their "Mashatiyha" (winter dwelling areas) in the valleys due to the settlers' recklessness.
Palestinians gather at a building seized by settlers in the village of Rashayida, east of Bethlehem (Al Jazeera)
Arab Rashayida
New settler aggression was carried out by a drone that targeted the tent of Palestinian Mohammed Awad Rashayida in the Arab Rashayida settlement east of Bethlehem, south of the West Bank. This attack led to the tent catching fire, with the occupants narrowly escaping.
Hassan Breijeh, Director of the "Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission" office in the Bethlehem governorate, described the harassment as a dangerous and unprecedented development. Settlers dropped flammable materials on December 27th last year, resulting in the burn down of the Rashayida tent, while his nine family members managed to escape.
