GENEVA - UN experts* today issued a stark warning about surging Israeli settler terror in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the existential risk it poses to Palestinian communities' presence on the land.
"Relentless attacks by the settler-colonial movement, carried out with the support and acquiescence of the Israeli State, have become a daily terror in Palestinian lives, sowing fear, uncertainty, and profound insecurity that inevitably compels the forcible displacement of the indigenous population," the experts said. "The escalating violence, carried out with full impunity, serves as an instrument of coercion in the hands of the occupying power, facilitating ethnic cleansing."
The experts noted a sharp increase in the number of Palestinians killed or injured in settler attacks in 2026. "Settler brutality has reached unprecedented levels this year, with at least thirteen Palestinians killed and close to five hundred injured in five months. Both fatalities and injuries are outpacing figures from previous years," they said.
Whilst no part of the West Bank has been spared, the continued displacement of Palestinians would expose approximately 663 km² of land to further settlement expansion. Palestinian communities in Area C - which remains under full Israeli military and civil control - are disproportionately affected. This is particularly acute in the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills, where communities bear a heavy burden of violence and displacement. In communities such as Masafer Yatta, near-daily raids by Israeli settlers and occupying forces have become a pervasive feature of daily life.
"Violence is used as a calculated, targeted tool to deny Palestinians access to essential services, agricultural and grazing areas, with the ultimate aim of severing the people's connection to the land," the experts said.
A stark example of this is the village of Umm al-Kheir in the South Hebron Hills. It is now encircled by the Carmel settlement and a new outpost, for which construction began in July 2025. The community has faced repeated water and electricity cuts, demolitions, and violent attacks by settlers. In July, a human rights defender from the community was shot and killed, allegedly by an armed, sanctioned settler, during protests against that construction.
The killing was followed by arbitrary detention of residents, torture, destruction of infrastructure, farmland, water sources, and grazing areas, and systematic attacks on children. Demolition orders now threaten the village with erasure. Umm al-Kheir is not alone: since 2023, new outpost installations across Areas B and C have consistently preceded and driven forcible transfers of Palestinian communities. Khan al-Ahmar, Abu Falah, Al Hathroura, Bariyyat Z'tara, Abo El-Henna, and Khallet a-Thabe' all face risks of forcible transfer, demolition, and displacement driven by settlement expansion.
The recent regional escalation has drawn international attention away from the realities unfolding in the occupied Palestinian territory, the experts said. "As diplomatic efforts are concentrated elsewhere in the region, accountability for the increasing violence of settlers and resulting displacement of people has slipped further from sight," they said. "Facing no pushback and no censure, Israel continues irreversibly eroding the Palestinians' right to self-determination enshrined in international law."
The experts urged Israel to immediately cease facilitating settler violence and forced displacement, including through financial, military, legislative, and political support to settlements and outposts, and to ensure accountability for settler attacks and effective protection of Palestinian communities. They also called for the safe and dignified return of displaced residents and guaranteed access to residential, agricultural, and grazing lands.
"Despite the blatant unlawfulness of its occupation of the West Bank, Israel remains bound by its obligations as an occupying power under the Geneva Conventions - including the duty to treat the Palestinian population as 'protected persons' under international humanitarian law," the experts said.
