Palestinian Territory – The escalation of settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, which intensified during the olive harvest season, is occurring without any deterrence or accountability, and often under the direct protection of the Israeli army. This forms part of a deliberate and systematic policy that uses settler violence to reinforce Israeli control, alongside rapid settlement expansion and land expropriation to impose de facto annexation and displace Palestinian residents.
The systematic escalation forms part of a broader effort to consolidate Israeli control over the West Bank by depopulating it and expanding the territorial and operational influence of settlements. This includes turning settlers into practical extensions of the army in attacks and land seizure operations, while imposing new patterns of field control that entrench separation and isolation between Palestinian communities, undermining any possibility of establishing a contiguous or independent Palestinian entity.
Euro-Med Monitor's field team has documented a marked increase in settler attacks against Palestinians in recent weeks, particularly farmers. These attacks have included physical assault, theft of olive harvests, burning of trees, destruction of property, and preventing access to agricultural land. Dozens of incidents took place under the direct protection of Israeli forces, with soldiers participating in some of them, clearly indicating an integrated system aimed at persecuting and displacing Palestinians.
The attacks carried out by organised, militia-like armed settlers who launch from settlements and illegal outposts throughout the West Bank have become a systematic practice of armed violence against Palestinian civilians
On 3 November, Euro-Med Monitor documented the killing of Palestinian Ahmad Rebhi al-Atrash by an Israeli settler on Road 35 near the entrance to Ras al Jura, north of Hebron. Israeli authorities attempted to justify the killing by alleging, without evidence, that he was trying to steal the settler's car. Israeli forces prevented a Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance crew from reaching him, causing him to bleed to death, then withheld his body before handing it over the following day.
The killing of al-Atrash raises the number of Palestinians killed by settlers to 13 since the beginning of 2025 and 37 since October 2023, an unprecedented toll that reflects a dangerous escalation in violence, shifting from attacks on property to the direct taking of lives.
Euro-Med Monitor documented 324 settler attacks over 39 days, from the beginning of October until the evening of 8 November, averaging eight attacks per day. Settler violence during the current olive harvest season is the highest in years, with approximately 163 incidents resulting in injuries to more than 143 Palestinians and the destruction of over 4,200 trees and saplings across 77 West Bank villages.
The attacks carried out by organised, militia-like armed settlers who launch from settlements and illegal outposts throughout the West Bank have become a systematic practice of armed violence against Palestinian civilians. These groups operate in close coordination with, and under the protection of, the Israeli army, raiding Palestinian villages and towns, attacking homes and vehicles, assaulting residents, and threatening them with expulsion. This is part of a policy aimed at spreading fear and forcibly displacing residents living near settlements, alongside the erection of tents on Palestinian agricultural land to establish new outposts that serve as bases for further attacks and expand Israeli control over the land.
On Saturday evening, groups of armed settlers attacked Palestinian homes in Raba village, southeast of Jenin, and assaulted residents under the protection of Israeli forces. Settlers also stormed Horvat Maon, east of Yatta in Hebron, where they attacked and beat residents and released their livestock onto agricultural lands belonging to the Makhamra family before assaulting family members present on their land. Israeli forces joined the attack and detained three young men from the family after beating them. In another incident, settlers cut down 20 productive olive trees on land belonging to a farmer from the Ajaj family in Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah.
On the same day, a Palestinian citizen and four foreign solidarity activists were injured and suffered bruises after settlers attacked them using sticks and stones while they were harvesting olives in the eastern part of Burin village, south of Nablus.
The previous day, settlers launched an attack in the northern Jordan Valley, demolishing several homes and sheep pens and assaulting Palestinian residents. This forms part of an ongoing policy to destroy Palestinian infrastructure and displace communities in agricultural areas in favour of expanding settlements.
The repeated settler attacks have led to the forced displacement of approximately 5,200 Palestinians from their villages and towns near settlement outposts. This is part of a systematic plan to reshape the demographic reality in the West Bank and impose a de facto situation that entrenches settlement expansion and weakens Palestinian presence.
The reality on the ground shows that Palestinians are victimised twice: first by settler violence, and then by Israeli policies that punish them when they attempt to defend themselves or their land. While settlers receive legal protection and complete impunity, Israeli authorities pursue and arrest Palestinians on charges such as assault or incitement simply for trying to repel attacks, protect their property, and defend their land.
The Israeli government's arming of settlers and providing them with legal and institutional protection constitutes a serious violation of its obligations as an occupying power under international humanitarian law and international human rights law, particularly its duty to safeguard the civilian population under its control.
Additionally, the complicity of law enforcement agencies and the military in protecting the perpetrators of these crimes, along with the refusal of judicial authorities to hold them accountable, has entrenched a state of complete impunity. The vast majority of cases are closed without any accountability, while the conviction rate for crimes committed by settlers against Palestinians does not exceed 3 per cent. This reflects structural complicity in which the military and judicial authorities share responsibility for protecting the perpetrators and enabling the continuation of these violations. Under international humanitarian law and the rules of global responsibility for unlawful acts, Israel bears direct responsibility for these crimes.
Euro-Med Monitor recalled the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion of 19 July 2024, which affirmed that settler violence against Palestinians, coupled with Israel's failure to prevent or effectively punish those responsible, as well as its excessive use of force against Palestinians, all contribute to creating a coercive environment that forces Palestinians to live under constant threat and restricts their presence in the occupied territories.
The ICJ noted that Israel's systematic failure to prevent or punish settler attacks against the lives and physical safety of Palestinians, together with its excessive use of force, clearly violates its legal obligations. It affirmed that the right to life of protected persons in the occupied territories is guaranteed under Article 46 of the Hague Regulations and Article 27(1) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which require the occupying power to treat protected persons humanely and protect them from violence or threats. It also referred to Articles 6(1) and 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantee the right to life and protection from violence and inhuman treatment.
Euro Med Monitor documented the continued expansion of illegal settlement outposts, which benefit from official protection and political cover from the Israeli government. Dozens of new outposts were established this year with clear government facilitation, including financial and logistical support for settlers and the provision of infrastructure to seize Palestinian land, particularly in the Jordan Valley, southern Hebron, and Nablus.
This expansion may appear random, but it follows a centralised and organised policy aimed at imposing new realities on the ground that entrench de facto annexation and undermine the territorial unity of the Palestinian areas.
The establishment of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 prohibits an occupying power from transferring parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies or altering its demographic composition or legal status. In this context, Israeli settlement activity, including the establishment of outposts and the expansion of existing settlements, amounts to a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, specifically Article 8(2)(b)(viii), which criminalises the transfer by an occupying power of its own population into occupied territory.
These practices not only constitute a war crime, but also amount to a crime of aggression under Article 8 bis of the same Statute, as they maintain a de facto annexation resulting from continued military occupation, in clear violation of the United Nations Charter and the principle that prohibits the acquisition of territory by force.
Euro-Med Monitor stresses that the system of control imposed by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories displays the elements of apartheid as defined in international law. It rests on a legislative, administrative and security framework designed to consolidate domination over the Palestinian population and deprive them of fundamental rights through institutional discrimination, settlement expansion, geographic isolation, and restrictions on freedom of movement and access to resources.
This system directly contradicts the 1973 Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid and Article 7(2)(h) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which defines as a crime against humanity any inhumane acts committed within an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over another with the intention of maintaining that regime. Israel's practices in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza, clearly reflect this system and represent a continuation of a colonial policy that seeks to entrench a permanent reality of racial domination and superiority.
The international community must take urgent action to implement the ICJ advisory opinion, which affirmed the illegitimacy of the continued Israeli occupation and its settlement activities. The opinion called on Israel to immediately cease all settlement activity, evacuate all settlers from the occupied Palestinian territories, and end its illegal presence there as soon as possible.
Real pressure must be exerted on Israel to ensure a complete halt to settler violence, to hold all those involved accountable, including political and military officials who provide protection, incitement, or legal cover, and to stop arming settlers and disarm settler militias of illegal weapons.
Euro-Med Monitor calls on the international community to pressure Israel to halt the construction and expansion of settlements, revoke all administrative and legal measures enabling the expropriation of Palestinian land, and establish an effective international protection mechanism for Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.
The International Criminal Court must expedite its investigations into crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories, particularly settlement expansion, systematic violence, forced displacement, and apartheid, which constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute. Euro-Med Monitor stressed the need for the Court to ensure accountability by investigating the individual criminal responsibility of Israeli political and military leaders involved in planning, executing, or inciting these crimes. Continued impunity enables further violations and undermines confidence in the international justice system.
