Israeli settlers, forces enjoying impunity for attacks on Palestinians: UN
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New Delhi: The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has issued a strong warning over the surge in attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, stating that the assaults are “often supported and joined by Israeli security forces.” The agency said the attacks, which have intensified during the olive harvest season, violate international law and undermine the ceasefire agreement.
In a statement released on October 27 from its office in Ramallah, the OHCHR said that ongoing settler violence continues to destroy homes and livelihoods, instill fear among Palestinians, and drive displacement across the occupied territories. It accused Israel of advancing its policy to consolidate annexation in violation of international law.
“Several attacks over the weekend reflect the persistent Palestinian precarity in the face of Israeli settler violence,” the statement said, condemning assaults on olive farmers and Bedouin communities.
On October 24, a verified video by the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory showed an Israeli settler, accompanied by Israeli security personnel, severely assaulting a 58-year-old Palestinian olive farmer in Nahhalin, near Bethlehem. While the Israeli military has said it is investigating the incident, the OHCHR noted that settlers and Israeli security forces “have so far enjoyed complete impunity for attacks against Palestinians, even deadly ones.”
The agency highlighted that such assaults have escalated beyond the olive harvest season, making daily life “impossible” for many Palestinians and forcing them to abandon their homes. In another serious incident on October 25, a mob of masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians harvesting olives in Mikhmas before setting fire to six homes in the nearby Bedouin community of Khallet As Sidra, northeast of occupied East Jerusalem.
According to UN monitoring, the community has been repeatedly targeted over the past two years in efforts to drive residents out and expand illegal settler outposts. Recently, women and children from Khallet As Sidra were relocated for safety, leaving the men behind to guard their homes. The arson attack reportedly destroyed several of those homes, injuring five Palestinian men and two Israeli women who were present in solidarity.
The OHCHR said that Israel’s “campaign of forced transfer” has led to the displacement of entire Bedouin communities over the past two years. Data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicates that about 3,200 Palestinians from dozens of Bedouin and herding communities have been forcibly displaced since October 2023, primarily from Area C of the West Bank.
The OHCHR warned that these attacks coincide with a rapid expansion of illegal Israeli settler outposts. Citing data from Israeli NGO Peace Now, the statement said 84 new outposts were established in the past year, compared to 49 the year before — a dramatic rise from the average of eight per year over the last decade.
Settler violence has also sharply increased, with 757 attacks recorded in the first half of 2025 alone — a 13 percent rise over the same period last year. Most of these incidents have occurred in Area C, which is “increasingly being emptied of Palestinians,” though attacks are also spreading into Area B, reflecting what the OHCHR described as an “ever-shrinking space for Palestinians.”
The agency reiterated the conclusions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which declared that Israel’s occupation must end and that the country must withdraw from all occupied Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and Gaza. The ICJ further ruled that Israel must immediately dismantle all settlements and evacuate settlers from the occupied areas.
“Settlers and Israeli security forces continue to act with impunity,” the OHCHR said. “The violence, displacement, and settlement expansion are part of a broader strategy to entrench annexation, in flagrant violation of international law.”
