Israeli settlers have carried out acts of violence, intimidation, property damage, and other reported attacks mainly in the West Bank against Palestinians. Israeli settler violence has been documented since at least the late 20th century and includes incidents such as physical assaults, arson, vandalism, sexual violence, and shootings. Human rights and international organisations describe the system of control in the occupied territories as amounting to Israeli apartheid and report systematic violence in this context. Multiple reports have also described cases in which Israeli security forces were either accompanying or reportedly supporting the attackers, raising concerns over enforcement and accountability.
In November 2021, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz discussed the steep rise in the number of incidents between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank, many of which result from attacks by residents of illegal settler outposts on Palestinians from neighboring villages. Settler violence also includes acts known as price tag attacks that are in response to actions by the Israeli government, usually against Palestinian targets and occasionally against Israeli security forces in the West Bank.
Palestinian police are forbidden from reacting to acts of violence by Israeli settlers, a fact which diminishes their credibility among Palestinians.Daniel Byman, A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism, Oxford University Press/Saban Center, Brookings Institution, 2011 p. 292: 'Palestinian police are barred from responding to settler violence. This policy reduces friction between settlers and Palestinian authorities, but it decreases the overall credibility of the PA, which cannot defend its people from settler harassment and violence.' Between January and November 2008, 515 criminal suits were opened by Israel against settlers for violence against Arabs or Israeli security forces; 502 of these involved "right wing radicals" while 13 involved "left wing anarchists".Constance B. Hilliard, Does Israel have a future?: the case for a post-Zionist state, Potomac Books, Inc., 2009 p. 59. In 2008, the senior Israeli commander in the West Bank said that a hard core of a few hundred activists were involved in violence against the Palestinians and Israeli soldiers. Some prominent Jewish religious figures living in the occupied territories, as well as Israeli government officials, have condemned and expressed outrage over such behavior, while religious justifications for settler killings have also been given.Amitai Etzioni, Security First: For a Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy, Yale University Press, 2008 p. 119.:'Others have justified violence against Arabs by citing the rule from the Talmud: "If a man comes to kill you, rise early, and kill him first." Israeli media said the defense establishment began taking a harder line against unruly settlers starting in 2008. In 2011 the BBC reported that "vast majority of settlers are non-violent but some within the Israeli government acknowledge a growing problem with extremists." UN figures from 2011 showed that 90% of complaints filed against settlers by Palestinians with the Israeli police never led to indictment.
In the 21st century, there has been a steady increase in violence and terror perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.Anshel Pfeffer,Top IDF officer warns: Settlers' radical fringe growing , Haaretz 20 October 2009. In 2012, an EU heads of mission report found that settler violence had more than tripled in the three years up to 2011. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) figures state that the annual rate of settler attacks (2,100 attacks in 8 years) has almost quadrupled between 2006 and 2014.Chaim Levinson, Gili Cohen and Jack Khoury, 'Palestinian mosque set on fire in suspected hate crime,' at Haaretz, 15 January 2014. 'The annual totals are up from 115 in 2006 to 399 in 2013..' In 2021, there was yet another wave of settler violence which erupted after a 16-year-old settler died in a car chase with Israeli police after having hurled rocks at Palestinians. So far it has resulted in 44 incidents in the span of a few weeks, injuring two Palestinian children. In the latter parts of 2021, there has been a marked increase in settler violence toward Palestinians, condemned at the United Nations Security Council.
This violence increased further following the election of a far-right government in 2022 which proposed to expand Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, as well as the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. From 7 October 2023 to 31 December 2024, there were 1,860 incidents of settler violence, resulting in the deaths of 870 civilians, including 177 children. Of the 150 investigations into settler violence opened in 2024, less than 10% resulted in indictment.
History
Physical violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank started in a systematic manner in 1980, as some religious settlers created a secret organization later referred to as "the Jewish Underground". This group was captured by Israeli law enforcement authorities in 1984. Settler violence received a new boost following the Oslo agreement in 1993. In late 2022, far-right leaders of the Israeli settlement movement were elected into the government of Israel and appointed as prominent ministers; in early 2023, Israeli settler violence increased, which included the Huwara rampage of February 2023. In October 2023, the outbreak of the Gaza war was accompanied by a further escalation in Israeli settler violence in the West Bank. After the war began, the settlers "have acted with near-impunity", wrote BBC News in May 2024.
In April 2024, Israeli settlers rampaged through Palestinian villages in the West Bank after the disappearance of Israeli teenager Benjamin Achimeir on 12 April 2024, whose dead body was found a day later.Multiple sources: In total, 11 Palestinian villages were attacked, four Palestinians were shot dead and thousands of animals were killed, while a dozen homes and over 100 cars were burned. BBC News, citing messages from Israeli settlers' WhatsApp groups and testimony from Palestinian villagers and officials, described the rampage as appearing to be an "organised campaign of revenge … carried out by co-ordinated groups on the ground, and targeted against ordinary Palestinians with no apparent connection to the murder of Benjamin Achimeir other than the bad luck of living nearby."
The 2025 Israel–Hamas war ceasefire was agreed upon in January, which included the release of Palestinian prisoners; on 17 January 2025, Defense Minister Israel Katz revealed the release of all seven Jewish Israelis detained for allegedly committing settler violence, with the rationale: "It is better for the families of Jewish settlers to be happy than the families of released terrorists". On 19 January, Israelis burned homes and vehicles in the villages of Turmus Ayya, Sinjil and Ein Siniya in the West Bank; the Israeli military said that it "broke up the riots and violence" and arrested two suspects. Israeli ultranationalist group 'Fighting for Life' had called for an "offensive initiative" in the West Bank "to destroy their celebrations [for the release of Palestinian prisoners] with an attack", declaring that Israelis "if needed will come to spoil the celebration of the enemy by themselves". On 20 January, Israeli settlers attacked the West Bank villages of Jinsafut and al-Funduq, with no one arrested by 22 January; the Israeli military reported that the settlers first "set fire to property", and later "threw stones and attacked the security forces".
In March 2025, dozens of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians and property in Jinba, close to Masafer Yatta, reportedly injuring 6 Palestinians, with Israel security forces reporting that this came after reports of attacks against Jews/Israelis south of Masafer Yatta and near Mitzpe Yair; The Times of Israel reported that the Israeli security forces arrested 22 Palestinians from Jinba, and did not arrest any Israeli settlers due to the incident. In April 2025, around 50 Israelis attacked residences and residents of Duma, setting fires, reportedly injuring three Palestinians; Israel security forces said that they conducted efforts to "disperse the violent confrontation" between Israeli civilians and Palestinians, but no arrests were announced. Following the June 2025 settler killing of Audah Hadhaleen, in September 2025 another pogrom was perpetrated in the neighboring Khallit al-Dabe' village.
In June 2025, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights petitioned the Supreme Court on behalf of Palestinian farmers from Wadi al-Far'a in the Jordan Valley, who had been blocked from reaching their land since October 2023 by settler Moshe Sharvit and his unauthorized outpost; in March 2026 the Court issued an interim order requiring the army to remove Sharvit and those acting on his behalf from the land.
Israel's settlement policy
Israel has justified its civilian settlements by stating the territories in question are not occupied, but disputed, and that a temporary use of land and buildings for various purposes appears permissible under a plea of military necessity and that the settlements fulfilled security needs.See for example Kretzmer, David, "The occupation of justice: the Supreme Court of Israel and the Occupied Territories, SUNY Press, 2002, , , page 83 The United Nations affirmed the principle of international law that the continuation of colonialism in all its forms and manifestations is a crime and that colonial peoples have the inherent right to struggle by all necessary means at their disposal against colonial powers and alien domination in exercise of their right of self-determination.See General Assembly Resolution 3103, 12 December 1973, "Basic Principles Of The Legal Status Of The Combatants Struggling Against Colonial And Alien Domination And Racist Regimes" and United Nations General Assembly Resolution 39/17, 23 November 1984, "Universal realization of the rights to self-determination" National liberation struggles are categorized as international armed conflicts by Article 1(4) of the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 to which the majority of states (including the Western states) are parties.See Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977 Hillier, Tim "Sourcebook on public international law", Routledge, 1998, , , page 627-628 The International Court of Justice concluded that Israel had breached its obligations under international law by establishing settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and that Israel cannot rely on a right of self-defence or on a state of necessity in order to preclude the wrongfulness of imposing a régime, which is contrary to international law. The Court also concluded that the Israeli régime violates the basic human rights of the Palestinians by impeding the liberty of movement of the inhabitants of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (with the exception of Israeli citizens) and their exercise of the right to work, to health, to education and to an adequate standard of living.See the Judgment in "Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory", para 120, 134, and 142 and PAUL J. I. M. DE WAART (2005) International Court of Justice Firmly Walled in the Law of Power in the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process. Leiden Journal of International Law, 18, pp 467–487,