Wave of settler attacks against Palestinian herders reported in central West Bank

Bedouin residents and human rights accuse extremists of arson and pepper spray attacks in Mukhmas area, goat killings in Jabba and harassment in Rammun

Rural Palestinian communities north of Jerusalem have been enduring a series of attacks by extremist settlers in the last three days, with residents and human rights activists reporting a slew of assaults and harassment.

On Friday, Jewish settlers grazed their sheep on land in Bedouin hamlets close to the Palestinian town of Rammun, and watered the sheep from water tankers belonging to the Bedouin herders. The settlers then emptied the rest of the water from the tankers so the Bedouin could not use it.

Then late Saturday night, fires were set in the Bedouin hamlets around Mukhmas northeast of Jerusalem.

When former residents of the hamlets together with activists went to inspect the damage on Sunday morning they were approached by two Jewish extremists who drove down to the hamlets, jumped out of their cars and threw rocks at them.

Rabbi Arik Ascherman, a longtime activist who was among those accompanying the Palestinian residents, said one of the settlers sprayed pepper spray at him but did not seriously harm him before driving away.

Currently, there are no residents of the Bedouin hamlets of Mukhmas living in their dwellings, after they were driven off in two severe settler assaults, first in October last year, and then again in January.

The IDF then issued a closed military zone order over the entire area of the Bedouin dwellings for a 12-month period, which prevented activists from providing what is called a “protective presence” to try to stave off the settler attacks.

The order excluded two illegal settlement outposts in the area, Kol Mevaser and Sde Yonatan, which are allegedly the source of the frequent settler violence against the Bedouin villagers.

The former residents of the Bedouin hamlets around Mukhmas now keep a lookout as far as possible over their former homes in an effort to ensure that their property is not destroyed or stolen.

On Saturday night, when settlers were spotted entering the hamlets and setting fires, the activists called the police and IDF, but no forces arrived at the scene to stop the arson, Ascherman said.

Palestinian herders in the area of the town of Jaba, close to Mukhmas, also reported that several of their goats were killed by settler extremists in the area on Saturday.

Further north, extremists continued to harass Bedouin herders in the Duma area, grazing their sheep in and among hamlets close to the Palestinian town on Friday.

As a result of the ongoing harassment, more Bedouin residents of the Duma hamlets fled the area, dismantling their homes and packing up their belongings during the course of Saturday.

On Sunday, settlers entered Khirbet al-Marajim, another Bedouin dwelling just south of Duma, broke the fence of a sheep pen and pepper-sprayed and assaulted the Palestinian residents despite the presence of IDF personnel in the hamlet, activists said.

The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The harassment and violence come against a backdrop of several incidents over the last week in which extremist settlers, and in one incident, a reservist soldier, are suspected of killing five Palestinian civilians.

Two Palestinian men were killed in Khirbet Abu Falah, 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of Mukhmas, overnight Saturday, apparently by Jewish extremists, and another Palestinian man died in unclear circumstances from suffocation in the same incident, possibly due to tear gas inhalation fired by IDF forces who arrived at the scene.

And on Saturday, Amir Shenaran, 27, was shot dead in the Palestinian village of Wadi al-Rakhim, in the collection of hamlets known as Masafer Yatta, and his brother critically wounded. The Palestinian Authority originally claimed that the shooting was carried out by a settler, although IDF Military Police said subsequently that a preliminary investigation had found that the shooter was a reservist soldier who arrived at the scene after being alerted to a confrontation between Palestinians and settlers.

Last Monday, the PA said two Palestinian men were shot dead by settlers in the Palestinian village of Qaryut, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

Some 50 settler violence incidents since Iran war’s start

Israeli human rights group Yesh Din has reported a spike in already rampant settler violence amid the war in Iran that began on February 28, with some 50 incidents recorded in the first four days of the conflict.

Settler violence had already risen sharply since the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, according to the United Nations. Including the weekend deaths, a total of five Palestinians have been killed by settlers this year, and 41 since the October 7 attack, according to WAFA, the official Palestinian Authority news agency.

Data published by the IDF and Shin Bet security agency in January showed a 27 percent rise in settler attacks in 2025 compared to the previous year.

In addition to the overall rise in settler attacks, 2025 also saw an increase in the number of serious incidents that included shootings, arson and other violent crimes, with 128 compared to 83 in 2024 and 54 in 2023, according to the data.

Extremist Jewish attacks, which now occur on a near-daily basis, largely go unchecked. Prosecutions are rare, and convictions are even rarer. Critics have accused the government, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, of shrugging off the attacks.