NEW YORK, August 20, 2026 (WAFA) — Human Rights Watch said that colonists' attacks in the occupied West Bank are increasingly driving Palestinians into forced displacement, warning that dozens of Palestinian villages and communities face the risk of being erased as such attacks intensify.
In a statement issued today, the organization said colonists' violence had completely or partially displaced residents from 107 villages and communities, affecting around 5,900 Palestinians since January 2023. It added that 15 Palestinians, including two children, had been killed by settlers since the beginning of this year through July 24.
Human Rights Watch said Israeli authorities arm, fund and grant impunity to colonists responsible for such abuses, noting that violence escalated during March and April and included killings, including of children, assaults, sexual violence, physical and psychological abuse, arbitrary detention, arson, and the destruction and theft of property.
The organization said an investigation it conducted in April and May examined colonists' attacks on seven Palestinian villages and communities: al-Mughayyir, Mikhmas and al-Taybeh in the Ramallah and al-Bireh governorate; Jalud and Qaryout in the Nablus governorate; and Khirbet Humsa and al-Ma'arajat in the Jordan Valley.
The investigation found that colonists attacked Palestinian residents and their property, in some cases committing abuses while Israeli army units were present or while soldiers stood by without intervening, contributing to a pattern of forced displacement.
Human Rights Watch said the attacks increasingly target Palestinians' livelihoods and food security by restricting access to grazing areas and water sources, stealing or killing livestock, and destroying or burning agricultural fields and crops. This has forced many residents either to sell their livestock, often at a loss, or incur additional costs to provide them with feed.
The organization said the continuing attacks had created a coercive environment in which many Palestinians felt they had no choice but to leave their homes, describing colonists' violence and the resulting displacement as a manifestation and means of advancing Israel's expanding illegal settlement project.
It said colonists responsible for displacing Palestinians receive financial, material and legal support from the Israeli government, noting that around 50 million shekels had been allocated to settlement outposts, including funding for quad bikes, night-vision goggles and drones used by settlers to harass Palestinians.
Human Rights Watch said Israeli authorities have failed to prosecute and hold colonists accountable for violence against Palestinians, effectively granting them impunity despite an unprecedented rise in settler attacks.
Figures show escalation in colonists' attacks
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the number of Palestinians forcibly displaced by colonists' attacks, demolitions and evictions during the first four months of 2026 exceeded the number recorded throughout all of 2025. The agency also documented an average of 6.6 settler attacks per day resulting in casualties, property damage, or both — the highest rate it has recorded in any year.
Human Rights Watch said Israel had failed to meet its obligations to protect Palestinians from colonists' violence, prevent and investigate such attacks, and prosecute those responsible. Instead, it said, Israel had contributed to enabling the violence by continuing to provide material support to groups responsible for abuses.
The organization said the evidence it gathered showed that the violence extends beyond direct attacks on Palestinians to the destruction of livelihoods and denial of access to land, grazing areas and water sources, creating conditions that push residents to leave their communities.
It noted that settlement outposts are often used as launching points for attacks against Palestinians and that their expansion pushes the boundaries of Palestinian land seizure. Citing figures from the Israeli organization Peace Now, Human Rights Watch said colonists had established 248 new outposts in the West Bank under the current Israeli government, including 65 since the beginning of 2026 through August 1.
The organization said Israeli groups reported in July that these outposts effectively controlled more than one million dunams of land, or nearly 18 percent of the West Bank, reflecting what it described as the expansion of land seizure alongside escalating colonists' violence.
Human Rights Watch highlighted several cases documented during its investigations, including attacks on Khirbet Humsa in the northern Jordan Valley, where residents faced assaults, livestock theft and the destruction of water tanks and energy sources, and eastern al-Ma'arajat, whose residents were forced to leave following continued attacks and harassment. It also cited al-Mughayyir and Qaryout, where attacks resulted in Palestinian deaths and injuries as well as the destruction of property and agricultural land.
The organization said the number of cases opened by Israeli police against colonists for attacking Palestinians had fallen by 70 percent since Itamar Ben-Gvir became national security minister in 2022, despite the unprecedented rise in settler attacks. It added that only one Israeli had been indicted for killing a Palestinian in the West Bank since 2019, while Ben-Gvir had eased requirements for firearms licenses and personally overseen the distribution of rifles to settlers in some cases.
Human Rights Watch said the attacks on these communities had included not only physical assaults but also the destruction of homes and infrastructure, theft of livestock and crops, and preventing residents from accessing their lands, resulting in the departure of entire families and communities in some cases.
The organization warned that the continuation of colonists' attacks, settlement expansion and impunity threatens to entrench a reality of forced displacement and the seizure of Palestinian land.
It called on other countries to take measures to prevent further violations in the occupied Palestinian territory, including targeted sanctions against those responsible for serious abuses, suspending arms transfers to Israel, banning trade with illegal settlements and considering the suspension of preferential trade agreements with Israel.
It also called for support for the International Criminal Court and its ongoing investigations, including implementation of arrest warrants, stressing that accountability should extend beyond colonists carrying out attacks to those who enable them and provide them with support and protection.
K.T
