West Bank: Violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians is soaring in the West Bank, and Israeli military soldiers were reportedly involved or giving their silent approval to the atrocities, a report by The Conversation said.
Jewish settlers reportedly attack Palestinians, beat, humiliate, and harass them.
The post-Oct. 7, 2023, environment has seen an escalation in settler violence, which has gone from primarily involving vandalism and property destruction to now being marked by kidnapping, prolonged abuse, and apparent military complicity.
In the two years to October 2025, more than 3,200 Palestinians were “forcibly displaced by settler violence and movement restrictions,” according to United Nations figures.
Violence has increased to an extent that the UN said October 2025 was the worst month for West Bank settler violence since it started recording incidents in 2006.
As a scholar who has studied Israeli extremist groups for over two decades, I contend that the dramatic escalation of settler violence in the West Bank reveals a profound transformation within Israel's state institutions.
Rather than serving as purported neutral enforcers of law and order, the military, Israeli police, and the broader governmental apparatus have become increasingly aligned with — and at times directly complicit in — violent settler actions against Palestinians.
This institutional reluctance to address settler violence is not merely a failure of enforcement, but a deliberate outcome of big social, political, and cultural changes that have reshaped Israeli society since at least the mid-1990s.
Since the present government of Israel came to power in 2022, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — both settlers with what has been described as extremist ideologies — have actively implemented policies that facilitate and legitimise settler violence.
For instance, Ben-Gvir has significantly eased firearm regulations, issuing over 100,000 new gun licenses since October 2023, with settlers receiving preferential access.