Settler Violence Escalates Across West Bank and Jerusalem

Settler attacks against Palestinians intensified across the West Bank and East Jerusalem on Wednesday, with Israeli forces reportedly providing protection. The assaults targeted Palestinian property, agricultural lands, homes, and vehicles. In the Nablus governorate, settlers burned two vehicles and spray-painted anti-Palestinian graffiti on homes in the town of Beita. Local sources reported that settlers attacked the area and set fire to two cars parked in front of Palestinian homes before fleeing. In the village of Jalud, south of Nablus, settlers bulldozed land to expand a settlement outpost on Mount Al-Nagma, continuing settlement expansion efforts.

Ghassan Daghlas, the governor of Nablus, warned of a dangerous escalation in settler attacks, characterizing them not as isolated incidents but as an organized policy by extremist groups supported by the Israeli occupation. He stated that settlement leaders and groups like "Hilltop Youth" are at the forefront of these attacks, aiming to alter the demographic and geographic reality in the West Bank. Daghlas asserted that these attacks align with the policies of the "extremist occupation government," which facilitates and protects the perpetrators, making it impossible to separate settler actions from occupation policies.

He further noted that pressure tactics now include blocking roads, damaging agricultural lands, besieging villages, and hindering Palestinians' access to their livelihoods, all intended to create harsh living and security conditions to facilitate forced displacement. In the southern West Bank, settlers released sheep to graze on Palestinian land in the Wad Sa'ir area, northeast of Hebron. Settlers from the "Asfar Metsad" settlement, built on Palestinian land, allowed their sheep to graze on land belonging to the Shalaldeh family. Additionally, settlers bulldozed farmland in the town of Deir Ballut, west of Salfit, while Israeli bulldozers damaged farmland near the town of Ya'bad, southwest of Jenin.

In occupied East Jerusalem, clashes erupted after Israeli forces and settlers stormed the town of Hizme, northeast of the city, with heavy tear gas deployment directed at homes. These attacks come amid a surge in settler violence, with 628 reported attacks in the West Bank during the past month alone. Ramallah and Al-Bireh governorate saw the highest number of attacks with 157, followed by Nablus with 137, Hebron with 120, Bethlehem with 73, Tubas with 40, Jenin with 36, and Jerusalem with 31.