'They’re allowed to do what they want': Palestinians describe surge in settler attacks

On November 11, dozens of Israeli settlers attacked a dairy warehouse in Beit Lid in the occupied West Bank belonging to the Al-Juneidi group, a Palestinian dairy company. They torched vehicles, lorries and tents belonging to Palestinians in the nearby village of Deir Sharaf, injuring four Palestinian workers.

CCTV footage of the dairy attack was broadcast by several international media outlets. It showed dozens of masked men running into the dairy and setting four milk trucks alight. In a post on X, Israeli President Isaac Herzog described the events as “shocking and serious”, blaming “a handful of violent and dangerous individuals”. His reaction followed reports that the same group of settlers had also attacked a group of IDF soldiers.

In another incident in Burin, near Nablus, on November 8, settlers attacked Palestinian olive harvesters, several foreign volunteers and an off-duty IDF reservist who was helping the farmers. The settlers also stole bags of olives. The confrontation left several people injured on both sides.

The Israeli Defence Forces acknowledged the Burin incident, stating that “several Israeli civilians threw stones at the harvesters”. The IDF added that its soldiers “operated to disperse the confrontation”.

The attacks were blamed on settlers from the 160 settlements Israel has built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967. Under international law, these settlements are illegal, and the international community broadly recognises them as such.

The November 8 and 11 attacks were among the rare cases that prompted public reactions from Israeli officials. Settlers are seldom arrested or prosecuted for such attacks.

Settler violence in the West Bank reaches unprecedented levels

Settler attacks on Palestinian homes, businesses and farms in the West Bank are not new. For at least 20 years, international organisations have recorded hundreds of such violent incidents every year.

In 2006, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs documented 115 cases, rising to 399 in 2013. That number climbed to 1,485 incidents in the first 10 months of 2025. According to the UN, October 2025 alone saw more than 260 settler attacks, an unprecedented monthly figure.

While factories, shops and other businesses are increasingly being vandalised, Bedouins’ olive groves remain the primary target, as they are a crucial source of income for many Palestinians in the West Bank.

Acts of harassment range from blocking access roads and destroying trees to violent and armed assaults during the olive harvest. According to a UN report, more than 4,200 olive trees and saplings were damaged or destroyed by settlers during the 2025 harvest season.

'Twenty-five masked men carrying axes, sticks and metal pipes attacked us'

Bashar Eid, a Palestinian farmer, was harvesting olives on November 8 on the outskirts of Burin when he was attacked by a group of settlers from the Givat Ronen outpost.

My house is in an area that belongs to the Palestinian National Authority. Israelis have no right to enter it or interfere. At around 10:00, we were surprised by settlers descending from the settlement above my house, around 20 to 25 masked men carrying axes, sticks and metal pipes.

They confronted us at point-blank range and attacked me and the volunteers. I suffered a severe beating that caused three fractures in my left leg. The volunteers were also beaten. Not only did they prevent us from harvesting, they also stole the olives we had already picked.

Settlers attacked the olive harvest on the farm of Bashar Ahmad in Burin on November 8, 2025, injuring several people.

We have proof: photos, videos, records of the attacks, everything from the settlers. A week ago, I filed a formal complaint. Israeli activists drove me to the police station, and I submitted the complaint there. But, as our proverb says: ‘If your adversary is the judge, who do you complain to?’

This video sent by our Observer, Palestinian farmer Bashar Eid shows settlers setting fire to his olive farm in Burin. 

'They want to scare me off the mountain'

Every Saturday, settlers come down around my house and attack it. They break everything. This is not the first time they have injured me, it is the fourth. The same settlers have already burned or cut down around 170 of my olive trees.

They want to scare me away; they want full control of the entire mountain. I have a neighbour who fled out of fear and terror and still has not returned to his home.

Since the war started on October 7, 2023, settler violence has increased clearly and significantly. They’re allowed to do what they want.

According to the World Bank, 16 percent of West Bank farmers have halted cultivation due to security and economic challenges, and two-thirds have lost half of their income.

While statistics show a rising number of attacks, first-hand witnesses also emphasise the growing levels of violence used by settlers during these incidents.

'Even with us there, the violence is getting worse'

Yael Moav is an Israeli activist who, alongside other volunteers, helps protect Palestinian farmers, their homes and their olive harvests from settler attacks.

The attacks are growing much bigger and more violent, even compared with two months ago. Palestinians cannot go to their farms and harvest their olives unless Israeli or international volunteers accompany them.

When we are with them, there is usually less violence. But things are changing. In the past six months, there have been numerous violent attacks against Israelis, Jewish or international volunteers, who come to provide ‘presence protection’ for Palestinians.

Until this year, if Israeli or international volunteers were present, settlers did not attack them. But that is no longer the case. This year, our volunteers have been injured twice during these attacks.

'The army is working with the settlers'

I feel uncomfortable admitting it, but the army is working with the settlers. This is the first year the army is so active against the harvest, going hand in hand with the settlers and their violence.

It is an army reserve unit in the West Bank, and all the soldiers in this unit are settlers themselves. They are not there to protect the Palestinians. Many times, settlers have attacked people I know personally. They called the police, but the police came and arrested them, the victims, because the settlers claimed the Palestinians had attacked them.

We have laws, courts and police, but it doesn’t work like that in the West Bank.

According to a United Nations report, “almost half of all incidents involved Israeli forces accompanying or actively supporting Israeli settlers while carrying out their attacks".

'The system is designed to protect settlers”

Yair Dvir, spokesperson for B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, told FRANCE 24 that police and the IDF routinely look the other way when settlers commit acts of violence.

The system has been designed to work like this. When settlers attack Palestinians, the state does not investigate automatically. That is the first step in this system.

Even when Palestinians file complaints, officials find excuses not to open a case. And even if they do open a file, they do not investigate. The excuses are not sophisticated, they are very simple. If settlers kill a Palestinian, they say it was self-defence. This has happened 21 times in the last two years.

Or they simply say they could not find the perpetrators. In the rare cases when settlers are arrested, they are released quickly.

According to Yesh Din,  an Israeli human rights organisation, 94% of cases involving offences committed by Israelis against Palestinians are closed without indictment. “The vast majority of the files close on grounds indicative of failure by the police to name suspects or collect evidence,” the group reported in January 2025.

'Settler violence is an unofficial arm of the state”

Israeli activists and human rights groups say the state does more than look away from settler violence, it actively enables it. The UK in June joined Canada and Australia in imposing sanctions on two members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for “repeated incitements” of settler violence.

Yair Dvir, spokesperson for B’Tselem, explained:

The state has created total impunity for the settlers because it wants this violence to continue; it sees the outcome as beneficial. Palestinian communities are leaving their land one after another, and that is the state’s goal. This is why we consider settler violence an unofficial branch of state violence.

Since the new government came to power, and since Ben Gvir and Smotrich entered office, even before October 7, violence in the West Bank had already increased.

Forcing Palestinians off their land is the public agenda of figures like Smotrich and Ben Gvir. That is why they give settlers weapons, and why they give them drones to attack and monitor Palestinian communities.

'This is how easily settlers take over the hills'

This is how easily settlers force Palestinians off their land: a few young settlers move a caravan onto a hilltop, or even pitch a tent near a Palestinian community. Then they ask the IDF for protection, and the army sends soldiers to guard them.

Soon, more caravans or tents appear. They then request basic infrastructure, and the government paves a road, connects water and electricity, and supports them. Meanwhile, they create terror around the hilltop. They block Palestinians from accessing their land or homes, and if anyone tries, the settlers attack.

Settlers have targeted dozens of Palestinian communities and built 144 new outposts like this across the West Bank in the past two years, seizing thousands upon thousands of dunams of Palestinian land.