Israeli army, settlers intensify violent displacement of Palestinians across West Bank: Report

Israeli settlers, supported by armed forces and Zionist institutions, have sharply escalated the forced displacement of Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, a report says.

Drop Site News in a report on Saturday revealed that since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, an estimated 10,000 Palestinians have been displaced within the Occupied West Bank, with entire villages dismantled and erased.

That figure rises sharply when combined with large-scale Israeli military aggressions, as more than 30,000 Palestinians have been forced from the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps during a single operation launched in January 2025, the largest displacement in the West Bank since the 1967 war.

Since the beginning of 2026 alone, nearly 700 Palestinians have been displaced from at least nine villages and herding communities due to settler violence, home demolitions, and access restrictions, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

Palestinian organizations say the violence is neither random nor driven by isolated extremists. It is a coordinated policy aimed at reshaping the West Bank’s demographics.

“The West Bank is being ethnically cleansed, fragmented and annexed in every sense of the word,” said Jamal Jumaa, coordinator of the Stop the Wall Campaign (SWC).

Over recent years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet and Zionist institutions, including the World Zionist Organization (WZO) and the Jewish National Fund (JNF), have funneled more than $26 million into illegal settlement outposts, providing infrastructure and services later protected by the army. These outposts often serve as the spearhead for forcing Palestinians off the surrounding land.

1,900 attacks recorded in January as Israeli violence intensifies in occupied West Bank

Israeli forces and settlers have carried out 1,872 attacks against Palestinians and their property across the occupied West Bank in January.

The groundwork for today’s crisis was laid by the Oslo Accords of the 1990s, which split the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C.

Israel retained full control over Area C, more than 60 percent of the territory, and home to most farmland, water resources, and nearly all settlements, effectively choking Palestinian development while enabling settlement growth.

Since Oslo, Israel has tripled its settler population. About 750,000 Israelis now live illegally in settlements across the Occupied West Bank and East al-Quds, carving Palestinian areas into isolated enclaves.

In recent months, senior Israeli officials have openly pushed for formal occupation. Hawkish Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich has described the strategy bluntly as “maximum land, minimum population.”

The UN has issued stark warnings.

“Forcible transfer of Palestinians within the occupied West Bank is a war crime and may amount to a crime against humanity,” said Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) for Occupied Palestine, in a statement last week.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a landmark advisory opinion declaring Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories illegal and calling for the removal of all settlements from the Occupied West Bank and East al-Quds.

Palestinian leaders and rights groups say the international community has been dangerously silent in response to these atrocities.

Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli regime has killed at least 1,100 Palestinians and wounded more than 9,000 others across the Occupied West Bank.

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