Settler Terrorism in the West Bank: Record Numbers Targeting Agricultural and Demographic Presence

The occupied West Bank is witnessing an unprecedented surge in settler violence, with field data indicating a significant increase in the pace of organized attacks. These assaults occur under the direct cover and protection of the Israeli occupation army, exacerbating the suffering of Palestinians in villages and areas classified as 'C'.

Data released by security sources showed that so-called 'nationalist crimes' committed by settlers jumped by 27% during 2025. Sources recorded approximately 867 documented assault incidents, a number far exceeding what was recorded in the previous year, which saw 682 incidents.

The danger lies in the shift in the nature of attacks towards direct and deadly violence, with incidents classified as 'serious' sharply increasing. These assaults included live-fire shootings, and the burning of inhabited homes and private property, directly threatening the lives of Palestinian citizens daily.

According to statistics, 2025 recorded approximately 128 serious incidents, compared to 83 incidents in 2024 and only 54 in 2023. This gradual escalation reflects the absence of legal accountability for settlers and the complicity of occupation authorities in curbing this growing phenomenon.

The olive harvest season, a key economic and social pillar for Palestinians, has not been spared from these systematic attacks. Field reports documented 126 attacks targeting 70 Palestinian towns and villages, involving the destruction and uprooting of more than 4,000 olive trees and newly planted saplings.

In the Tubas plains and Jordan Valley, farmers face suffocating restrictions that prevent them from accessing their fields and livestock pastures. Farmers reported losing access to two-thirds of their land, leading to agricultural machinery breakdowns and a sharp decline in production due to continuous threats.

'Pastoral settlement' emerges as a new and effective tool for controlling vast areas of Palestinian land. Settlers bring their livestock into Palestinian-owned wheat fields and olive groves, aiming to impose new facts on the ground and prevent original landowners from utilizing them.

Agricultural researchers confirmed that this pattern of settlement targets the Palestinian presence in open and sprawling areas. This policy seeks to isolate Palestinian population centers and transform agricultural lands into settlement influence zones under security or pastoral pretexts.

Economically, estimates indicate that about a quarter of the olive-cultivated areas in the West Bank have become inaccessible. This reality has led to severe losses in national agricultural income and directly impacted food security for thousands of families dependent on this tree.

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission revealed shocking figures for recent years, with approximately half a million dunams of land closed off. More than 52,000 trees were directly attacked, in addition to the theft of over 5,000 head of livestock since the beginning of this year.

In a dangerous field development, occupation forces and settlers deliberately dug military trenches separating villages from their natural extensions. In eastern Tubas, thousands of dunams were isolated in just one week by creating a new trench that permanently prevented farmers from accessing their crops.

Scenes of fires recur in areas south of Nablus, where settlers target wheat crops and ancient olive trees. Civil defense crews and residents are forced to risk their lives to extinguish these fires under threat of arms, in an attempt to save what remains of their daily sustenance.

This systematic targeting of the agricultural sector primarily aims to undermine the steadfastness of Palestinian citizens on their land. Observers believe that the international community's silence encourages settlers to proceed with their plans to empty rural areas of their original inhabitants in favor of settlement expansion.

In conclusion, the field reality in the West Bank remains prone to further deterioration in the absence of any legal or international deterrent. Losses continue to accumulate daily, encompassing land, crops, and natural resources, in an existential battle fought by the Palestinian farmer alone against the machinery of settlement oppression.

Settlers do not let us work or harvest, and the goal is to empty us from our land, but we remain in it like olive trees.