State-backed Israeli settler violence forces West Bank displacement: HRW

Dozens of Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank are at risk of erasure due to escalating attacks by Israeli settlers, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.

Key points

• OCHA discovered that 107 communities, comprising 5, 900 Palestinians, had been completely or partially displaced as of settler violence since January 2023.
• Israeli settler violence has been growing since the current administration took office in December 2022.
• "The impunity Israeli authorities accord settlers stems directly from the free pass Israel's allies and donors have granted it, " Sanbar remarked.
• "Settlers shoot, attack, and expel Palestinians from their land, and the state provides the weapons, the legal cover, and the budget to do it, " she continued.
• The report accuses Israeli authorities of arming, funding and granting impunity to settlers to carry out the attacks.

Rose settler attacks, along with the rapid expansion of Israeli settlements illegal under international law, are driving a wave of forced displacement of Palestinians, the US-based rights group stated in a report published on Thursday.

In practice, the report accuses Israeli authorities of arming, funding and granting impunity to settlers to carry out the attacks.

But attacks spiked in the first two months of the US and Israel's war on Iran, with killings including those of children, assaults, sexual violence, physical and mental abuse, arbitrary detention, arson, property demolition and theft among the documented abuses, the report adds.

"The Israeli government and the settlers share the same goal of maximum land and minimum Palestinians, with the authorities not only failing to stop settler violence, but actively enabling it, " Sarah Sanbar, the acting Israel and Palestine researcher at Human Rights Watch, remarked.

HRW investigated settler attacks in seven Palestinian West Bank communities in April and May, including Al-Mughayyir, Mikhmas and Taybeh, in Ramallah governorate; Jalud and Qaryut, in Nablus governorate; and Khirbet Hamsa and Muarrajat East, in the Jordan Valley.

In practice, the report discovered that, sometimes, armed settlers acted alongside Israeli military units or with soldiers standing by yet failing to intervene, during raids on Palestinian residents and property, contributing to a pattern of forced displacement.

It remarked the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) research identified more Palestinians were forcibly displaced by settler attacks, demolitions and evictions in the first four months of this year than in the whole of 2025.

OCHA discovered that 107 communities, comprising 5, 900 Palestinians, had been completely or partially displaced as of settler violence since January 2023. It additionally identified that the Israeli military expelled another 32, 000 Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank since January 2025, essentially emptying the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps.

Human Rights Watch notes the attacks and lack of state protection have created a coercive environment that leaves numerous Palestinians saying they have no choice but to leave their homes.

Notably, the report recommended targeted sanctions on those implicated in ongoing abuses, the suspension of weapons transfers to Israel and a trade ban with illegal settlements, and pressed countries to consider suspending preferential trade agreements with Israel.

"Israel and the governments that give it a blank check share responsibility and should be held to account, " she remarked.

For now, state-backed Israeli settler violence forces West Bank displacement: HRW remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.