UN alleges record levels of settler violence in the West Bank this year

Meanwhile, Palestinian farmers claim IDF project to prevent smuggling and terror attacks has damaged their water infrastructure

The UN said Thursday that violence by settlers in the West Bank has reached record levels, with an average of six attacks daily causing casualties or damage.

The number of such attacks this year has surpassed 1,000, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN chief, citing the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“Just last week, settler attacks resulted in the injury of more than 30 Palestinians and widespread damage to property, central infrastructure as well as livelihoods,” Dujarric said. “The current pace of settler attacks causing casualties or property damage, with an average of six incidents per day, is higher than any year on record.”

More than 2,200 Palestinians have been displaced this year due to settler violence or access restrictions, while hundreds more have been displaced due to home demolitions by Israeli authorities, he said.

The remarks came two days after rights group Amnesty accused Israel of “state-led” ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, a charge the IDF rejected.

Critics have accused the government and law enforcement of turning a blind eye to violent attacks by settler extremists, which have become increasingly deadly in recent years and occur on a near-daily basis. Arrests are rare and prosecutions are even less common.

The military recorded 867 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence in 2025, up from 682 incidents in 2024.

Separately, Palestinian farmers told AFP this week that Israeli construction has allegedly destroyed irrigation systems on an agricultural plain near Tubas in the northern West Bank, causing fields to dry up and livestock to go thirsty.

Three farmers said the Israel Defense Forces had, for several months, been building a 22-kilometer (13.6-mile) military road linking the villages of Ein Shibli and Tayasir. The construction work destroyed their water pipes that watered their fields and livestock.

They complained that the army often prevents them from accessing their land and has installed a metal barrier restricting movement.

The military said the work in the area was part of a project responding to a “clear security necessity.”

“The purpose of the project is the prevention of weapons smuggling and the disruption of security threats against the State of Israel,” it told AFP.

“The area has a history of terrorist activity, including shooting attacks and incidents that have resulted in the deaths of soldiers,” it said, citing a 2024 terror shooting that killed 23-year-old civilian Yonatan Deutsch.

Palestinian farmers said the measures had compounded their suffering.

“Since February, we have been suffering from water shortages. We are unable to irrigate our crops and unable to access our land,” said vineyard owner Saleh Hamdan.

“If there is no water, there are simply no farmers left,” he continued, displaying dried-up bunches of grapes.

At the scene, an AFP journalist saw damaged water irrigation pipes as well as bulldozers parked near the farmer’s land.

“We are suffering above all from the lack of water for our livestock,” Lofti Bani Odeh, another farmer from the same area, told AFP, adding that water supplies to farmers were cut when the army began work on the road.

“Any farmer who tries to access his land here is arrested, assaulted and humiliated” by Israeli soldiers, claimed another farmer, Dirgham Basharat.

Unable to provide water and fodder for his animals, he said he felt as though he was “in a prison.”

In December 2025, Israeli authorities issued military requisition orders covering more than 1,000 dunams (about 100 hectares) in the governorate, according to a report by the National Bureau for the Defence of Land and Resistance to Settlement Activity, a body affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The road project, dubbed “Scarlet Thread” by the army, was reportedly suspended in late January 2026 by an interim order from Israel’s Supreme Court.

In March, the court authorized the project to resume, citing an urgent security necessity.