Israeli settler violence against Palestinians surge to record levels in occupied west bank
Ramallah/Jerusalem, Occupied West Bank/London-UK, November 26, 2025
WEST BANK CRISIS: UN Confirms Record Settler Attacks and Mass Displacement as Forced Transfer Campaign Intensifies
The Displacement and Israeli Settler Violence Against Palestinians Has Surged to Record Levels in the Occupied West Bank, according to urgent new reports from the United Nations and leading human rights watchdogs.
As global attention remains fixed on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the systematic erosion of Palestinian life in the West Bank has reached unprecedented emergency levels, marked by both a terrifying spike in settler-led assaults and a campaign of mass forced displacement that humanitarian organisations warn could constitute war crimes.
The deliberate actions by settlers—often supported or accompanied by Israeli military personnel—are aggressively transforming the demographics of key areas, particularly Area C, intensifying international concern over de facto annexation and the permanent denial of a Palestinian state.
The scale of the violence achieved a grim milestone in October 2025, during the critical olive harvest season, when the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded over 260 settler attacks—the highest monthly total since the UN began regularly monitoring such incidents in 2006.
This average of eight incidents per day, which included severe assaults on farmers, destruction of crops, and the torching of homes, makes 2025 the most violent year on record for settler-driven attacks, with more than 1,000 incidents documented since January.
Disturbingly, UN monitoring confirms that Israeli security forces were present or actively supported settlers in almost half of the documented incidents, blurring the lines between state and non-state aggression.
This daily terror has been compounded by a staggering wave of displacement. Since October 7, 2023, more than 3,400 Palestinians from dozens of herding and Bedouin communities have been forcibly displaced primarily from Area C, the 60% of the West Bank under full Israeli civil and military control.
These smaller, community-wide expulsions are often the culmination of months of repeated assaults, movement restrictions, and the destruction of basic infrastructure, including water wells and animal shelters, leaving residents with “no genuine choice but to leave their homes.”
However, the displacement figures were massively escalated earlier this year by large-scale military operations.
In its November 2025 report, Human Rights Watch detailed “Operation Iron Wall,” a series of Israeli military raids across the northern West Bank in January and February 2025 that forcibly removed an estimated 32,000 Palestinians from the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps.
The report alleges that these actions, which included the deliberate demolition of more than 850 homes and buildings, amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
These displaced residents have not been permitted to return, constituting the largest forced displacement of Palestine refugees in the West Bank since the 1967 war.
The surge in violence is directly linked to the rapid expansion of illegal Israeli outposts. Data shows that in the past year alone, 84 new settler outposts were established, a massive leap compared to the yearly average of eight outposts over the previous decade.
These outposts often serve as the launching pads for attacks on Palestinian agricultural land, intended to seize territory and intimidate farmers, effectively closing off vast tracts of land to Palestinian access.
Since January 2025, Israeli authorities have also systematically demolished more than 130 essential Palestinian water and sanitation structures, further throttling the ability of communities to sustain their livelihoods.
The crisis in the Occupied West Bank is rapidly accelerating a process of forced transfer and annexation that threatens to extinguish any possibility of a viable Palestinian state.
For the London-UK based CJ Global newspaper, the UN’s stark condemnation and the documentation of record violence underline the international community’s failure to enforce international law, which explicitly prohibits an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into occupied territory (Fourth Geneva Convention).
As the UN Security Council receives urgent briefings warning that the West Bank violence is jeopardising fragile regional ceasefires, the world is facing a humanitarian and legal catastrophe that is happening in plain sight.
Headline Points
Record Violence:
October 2025 recorded over 260 settler attacks, the highest monthly total since the UN began tracking incidents in 2006, often targeting Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest.
Mass Displacement:
An estimated 32,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from northern West Bank refugee camps (Jenin, Tulkarem, Nur Shams) in early 2025, an operation Human Rights Watch deems a war crime.
Area C Focus:
At least 3,400 herding Palestinians have been displaced since October 2023, primarily from Area C, due to repeated settler attacks and movement restrictions.
Settlement Expansion:
The surge in violence correlates with a rapid increase in illegal settlement activity, with 84 new outposts established in the last year compared to the average of eight.
Complicity and Destruction:
Israeli security forces were present or actively supported settlers in nearly half of the attacks; over 130 essential water and sanitation structures have been demolished in 2025.
