Eurasia Press & News
Mass displacement, settler violence, and Israeli military killings have surged across the West Bank, driven by an unbridled campaign to seize Palestinian land
In Burqin, a hillside village overlooking Jenin in the northern West Bank, the Abdullah family mourns a heavy loss.
A large, framed picture of their son, Montasser Billah Mahmoud Abdullah, now hangs on the living room wall of the family home, his recent death one among more than 1,000 Palestinians killed by Israel since October 2023.
On 27 November, Montasser and another Palestinian, 37-year-old Youssef Ali Assassa, were in a building near the Jenin refugee camp during an Israeli military raid. Surrounded by soldiers, they stepped out unarmed, with their hands raised. Despite having surrendered, the soldiers shot both men dead.
The incident would have gone unnoticed, had it not been filmed by an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist and circulated worldwide. Montasser’s brother, Qassem Abdullah, learned of his death by watching the footage.
“It is such brutal violence,” he told The New Arab. “Montasser was a good man; he brought joy to those around him. He had three children, the youngest is four years old, and they saw the video too. I have no words.”
In a joint statement, the army and police (which oversee the border guard unit) explained that their forces carried out “the arrest of two individuals wanted for terrorist acts, including throwing explosives and shooting at security forces”.
The Israeli army announced it had opened an investigation. Contacted by The New Arab, the military declined to comment, stating that it would “provide information if there are developments”.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) described the incident as a “summary execution”. Under international law – including the Geneva Conventions – killing a person who is hors de combat, including a fighter who has surrendered, constitutes a war crime.
To this day, the Israeli army has not returned Montasser’s body to his family, preventing them from beginning the grieving process.
For Fadi, another of Montasser’s brothers, the prospects for justice are bleak. “Sadly, I don’t believe the soldiers who executed my brother will face prosecution in the Israeli justice system. On the contrary, the far-right Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, wants to reward them for what they did. There is no justice for Palestinians.”
Montasser’s execution is one more trauma for the Abdullah family, originally from Jenin’s refugee camp but displaced by the Israeli military’s Operation Iron Wall that emptied the camp of its residents in early 2025.
“Our family was forced to leave our home, and we sought refuge in Burqin,” Fadi explains. “We don’t know if they will ever let us return to the camp.”
Israeli land grabs
Since January 2025, over 40,000 Palestinians, like the Abdullah family, have been displaced by Israeli forces as part of Operation Iron Wall, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Among them, at least 2,895 Palestinians from 69 communities across the West Bank, mainly pastoral or Bedouin communities, have been displaced due to a “coercive environment” created by settler violence and access restrictions, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The silent exodus stretches across the West Bank, affecting residents of the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps, as well as villagers living in Area C.
Since the Oslo Accords, the West Bank has been divided into three areas: Area A – theoretically under full Palestinian Authority (PA) control; Area B – under PA administrative control and Israeli security control; and Area C – under full Israeli control, accounting for 60% of the occupied territory.
“In Area C, Bedouin and pastoral communities are isolated and therefore more frequently targeted by violence from the army and settlers. They are particularly vulnerable,” explains Yair Dvir, spokesperson for the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem.
The same is true for residents of the village of Ibziq. “Since the end of September, the entire village in the northern Jordan Valley has been emptied of its inhabitants under pressure from settler violence,” recounts Abdel Majid, a spokesperson for the village, whose residents have now relocated to tents overlooking the valley.
“After 7 October 2023, an outpost [an illegal settlement not only under international law but also under Israeli law] was established by a handful of extremist settlers. They regularly raided Ibziq armed with guns or clubs, destroying homes and stealing Palestinians’ belongings,” Abdel Majid told The New Arab, in a testimony consistent with reports from French NGO Première Urgence Internationale on Ibziq.
Terrified, the community left the area entirely. Contacted by TNA about the situation in Ibziq, the Israeli army said it was “unaware of these incidents”.
Spike in settler violence
Along the Jordan Valley, a territory largely in Area C, the testimonies from farming communities are harrowing.
In the south, near the Palestinian city of Jericho, Bedouin residents of Ras Ein al-Auja have faced a sharp increase in settler violence since January 2024, according to an OCHA report published in March 2025, with “over 110 incidents, 45 of which caused injuries or property damage”.
This contrasts with “only five incidents recorded in the previous decade, two of which caused damage,” the report notes.
Palestinian shepherd Abu Taleb experienced the violence firsthand. In the summer of 2024, 300 of his sheep were stolen by armed settlers. “One sheep costs 2,000 shekels [about $600],” he laments, surrounded by his son and five of his grandchildren, seated near his herd, which still numbers a few dozen animals. “I was never able to get them back,” he told TNA.
Support from NGOs and activists has been essential in helping to protect farmers from settler violence. “The NGOs Comet-ME and Yesh Din installed cameras and GPS trackers on my sheep after the settlers stole them,” Abu Taleb says.
In recent months, settlers have been entering Ras Ein al-Auja daily, sometimes armed. They enter Palestinian homes to provoke confrontations with locals, and let their sheep drink from Palestinian water sources.
As a result, Palestinian shepherds are forced to buy expensive water tanks. “International activists film them to prevent attacks on Palestinians,” explains Ibrahim, Abu Taleb’s son.
However, to prevent international activists from reaching certain Palestinian communities, the Israeli army regularly issues military restriction orders, according to Ilona Hefetz, from the organisation Rabbis for Human Rights.
“In October, our organisation faced eight such military bans as we attempted to reach a Palestinian village. We are beginning to think that these military measures have become systematic, in order to prevent anyone from stopping attacks against Palestinians or documenting settler crimes.”
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers carried out at least 264 attacks against Palestinians during October – an average of more than eight incidents per day. According to OCHA, this is the highest number of settler attacks recorded in a single month since the United Nations began documenting these incidents in 2006.
Following Hamas’s 7 October attack, there has been a sharp surge in the number of settlers obtaining weapons. Many of the 220,000 new gun permits authorised by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ended up in settlements, which are now overseen by groups that function much like private militias.
“Obviously, the Israeli police, whom we deal with in Area C, don’t care,” says Ben, an Israeli activist based in Ras Ein al-Auja. As settler violence escalates, the apparent complicity between Israeli military forces and settlers has become increasingly visible.
In Masafer Yatta, in the southern West Bank, Palestinian activists like Ahmad Hathaleen actively denounce the collaboration of violent settlers with Israeli authorities.
“On 28 July, residents of the village of Umm El Kheir gathered to protest the expansion of settlements,” Ahmad recounts. “Yinon Levi, an Israeli settler, then opened fire on my brother Awdah Hathaleen, a peaceful Palestinian activist from Umm El Kheir, while he was filming settlers damaging olive trees and nearby infrastructure.”
Awdah Hathaleen died from his injuries. The incident was filmed by several witnesses, but Yinon Levi remains free. “When a Palestinian is killed by a settler, there is complete impunity,” says Ahmad.
According to the Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din, between 2005 and 2023, only 6.6% of attacks by Israeli civilians against Palestinians resulted in a formal indictment.
