State-backed Israeli settler violence forces West Bank displacement: HRW

SaveSharefacebookxwhatsapp-strokecopylinkIsraeli settlers put up Israeli flags on a Palestinian structure on the outskirts of Beit Sahour, on August 14, 2026 [File: Mahmoud Illean/AP]By Al Jazeera StaffPublished On 20 Aug 202620 Aug 2026Dozens of Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank are at risk of erasure due to escalating attacks by Israeli settlers, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.Increased settler attacks, along with the rapid expansion of Israeli settlements illegal under international law, are driving a wave of forced displacement of Palestinians, the US-based rights group said in a report released on Thursday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Israeli settler children attack ambulance in occupied West Banklist 2 of 3Palestine weekly: Global outcry fails to break West Bank siegelist 3 of 3Palestinians, UK condemn Israel’s ‘destructive’ E1 settlement planend of listThe report accuses Israeli authorities of arming, funding and granting impunity to settlers to carry out the attacks.Israeli settler violence has been growing since the current government took office in December 2022.But attacks spiked in the first two months of the US and Israel’s war on Iran, with killings including those of children, assaults, sexual violence, physical and mental abuse, arbitrary detention, arson, property demolition and theft among the reported abuses, the report adds.Maximum land and minimum Palestinians“The Israeli government and the settlers share the same goal of maximum land and minimum Palestinians, with the authorities not only failing to stop settler violence, but actively enabling it,” Sarah Sanbar, the acting Israel and Palestine researcher at Human Rights Watch, said.“Settlers shoot, attack, and expel Palestinians from their land, and the state provides the weapons, the legal cover, and the budget to do it,” she added.HRW investigated settler attacks in seven Palestinian West Bank communities in April and May, including Al-Mughayyir, Mikhmas and Taybeh, in Ramallah governorate; Jalud and Qaryut, in Nablus governorate; and Khirbet Hamsa and Muarrajat East, in the Jordan Valley.The report found that, sometimes, armed settlers acted alongside Israeli military units or with soldiers standing by yet failing to intervene, during raids on Palestinian residents and property, contributing to a pattern of forced displacement.Rising forced displacementIt said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) research found more Palestinians were forcibly displaced by settler attacks, demolitions and evictions in the first four months of this year than in the whole of 2025.OCHA found that 107 communities, comprising 5,900 Palestinians, had been completely or partially displaced as a result of settler violence since January 2023. It also found that the Israeli military expelled another 32,000 Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank since January 2025, essentially emptying the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps.Human Rights Watch says the attacks and lack of state protection have created a coercive environment that leaves many Palestinians saying they have no choice but to leave their homes.Targeted sanctionsThe report recommended targeted sanctions on those implicated in ongoing abuses, the suspension of weapons transfers to Israel and a trade ban with illegal settlements, and urged countries to consider suspending preferential trade agreements with Israel.“The impunity Israeli authorities accord settlers stems directly from the free pass Israel’s allies and donors have granted it,” Sanbar said.“Israel and the governments that give it a blank check share responsibility and should be held to account,” she said.