The Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CRRC) reported that Israeli forces and settlers launched about 2,350 assaults across the occupied West Bank last month, describing the violence as part of a continuing cycle of terror.
According to CRRC head Mu’ayyad Sha’ban, Israeli forces were responsible for roughly 1,584 of those incidents, which included assaults, home demolitions, and the uprooting of olive trees. He said the majority of these attacks occurred in Ramallah, Nablus, and Hebron.
The research, compiled in a CRRC monthly report titled ‘Occupation Violations and Colonial Expansion Measures’, also documented 766 settler attacks, which it said were linked to an organised effort to expand illegal settlements and displace Palestinians from their land. The report accused settlers of pursuing a “systematic colonial project” designed to impose a racially discriminatory regime.
According to the findings, settler violence reached its highest levels yet, with most incidents targeting areas in Ramallah governorate (195), Nablus (179) and Hebron (126). Olive farmers, in particular, were said to have borne the brunt of these assaults, which the commission described as acts of “state-backed terror” planned and encouraged by Israeli authorities, Al Jazeera reported.
The CRRC report detailed incidents of what it described as coordinated “vandalism and theft” by Israeli settlers and soldiers, resulting in the uprooting, destruction, and poisoning of more than 1,200 olive trees across several West Bank governorates, including Hebron, Ramallah, Tubas, Qalqilya, Nablus, and Bethlehem.
Since October, settlers have also attempted to establish seven new outposts on Palestinian land in the Hebron and Nablus areas.
The uprooting of olive trees—long seen as a powerful cultural and economic symbol for Palestinians—has been a recurring practice by the Israeli military over the years, aimed at facilitating land seizures and displacing Palestinian residents.
This latest surge in settler and military violence coincides with reports that Israel’s Higher Planning Council (HPC), part of the Civil Administration that governs the occupied West Bank, is preparing to approve the construction of nearly 2,000 new housing units.
The Israeli peace group Peace Now noted that over 1,200 of these would be located in two isolated northern West Bank settlements, Avnei Hefetz and Einav Plan.
According to Peace Now, the HPC has been meeting weekly since late 2024 to push forward settlement expansion, thereby normalising construction on stolen Palestinian land. The group said that since the start of 2025, the council has advanced plans for over 28,000 new housing units—an unprecedented figure.
The expansion has been encouraged by far-right members of Israel’s government, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who drew global criticism in August for saying that the E1 settlement project—long opposed by the US and European Union—would effectively “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.”
The E1 plan seeks to link occupied East Jerusalem with the Maale Adumim settlement, a move widely viewed as a death blow to the two-state solution envisioned in multiple UN resolutions.
While US Vice President JD Vance, during a recent visit to Israel, insisted that Washington would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, he acknowledged frustration with what he called “political stunts” by Israeli leaders. Despite such statements, the US has taken little concrete action to curb Israeli settlement expansion or military operations in the West Bank, even as it continues to promote its role in brokering a Gaza ceasefire.