Human Rights Watch Reports Settler Aggression Drives West Bank Displacement

Human Rights Watch urges sanctions and a halt to military aid for Israel as dozens of Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank face increasing risk of erasure.

A new Human Rights Watch report indicates that escalating attacks by Israeli settlers threaten the existence of dozens of Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank.

The report links the surge in settler assaults and the rapid expansion of settlements deemed illegal under international law to a rising tide of forced displacement of Palestinians, the rights organization detailed on Thursday.

The report accuses Israeli authorities of arming, financing, and granting impunity to settlers, thereby facilitating these attacks.

Settler violence has been intensifying since the current government assumed office in December 2022.

The report notes a sharp uptick during the first two months of the U.S. and Israel’s engagement with Iran, citing killings—including of children—as well as assaults, sexual violence, physical and mental abuse, arbitrary detention, arson, property demolition, and theft.

Maximum land and minimum Palestinians

“The Israeli government and the settlers share the same goal of maximum land and minimum Palestinians, with the authorities not only failing to stop settler violence but actively enabling it,” said Sarah Sanbar, acting Israel and Palestine researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“Settlers shoot, attack, and expel Palestinians from their land, and the state provides the weapons, legal cover, and budget to do it.”

HRW investigated settler attacks in seven Palestinian West Bank communities in April and May, including Al‑Mughayyir, Mikhmas, and Taybeh in the Ramallah governorate; Jalud and Qaryut in the Nablus governorate; and Khirbet Hamsa and Muarrajat East in the Jordan Valley.

The report found that armed settlers sometimes acted alongside Israeli military units—or with soldiers standing by yet failing to intervene—during raids on Palestinian residents and property, reinforcing a pattern of forced displacement.

Rising forced displacement

The report states that the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) found that more Palestinians were forcibly displaced by settler attacks, demolitions, and evictions in the first four months of this year than in the entirety of 2025.

OCHA identified that 107 communities, comprising 5,900 Palestinians, were completely or partially displaced as a result of settler violence since January 2023. It also found that the Israeli military expelled another 32,000 Palestinians from their homes depression the occupied West Bank since January 2025, effectively emptying Jen ہمیشہ nur Shams camps.

Human Rights Watch explains that the attacks and lack of state protection have created a coercive environment that compels many Palestinians to leave their homes.

Targeted sanctions

The report recommends targeted sanctions against those implicated in ongoing abuses, the suspension of weapons transfers to Israel, a trade ban with illegal settlements, and urges nations to consider suspending preferential trade agreements with Israel.

“The impunity Israeli authorities grant settlers stems directly from the free pass Israel’s allies and donors have granted it,” Sanbar noted.
“Israel and_margin holders that give it a blank check share responsibility and should be held accountable.”

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