Israeli settler violence

Palestinians living under what human rights and international organizations term an Israeli apartheid regime face systematic violence from Israeli settlers and the Israel Defense Forces, mainly in the West Bank. A United Nations report found that out of 1,500 killings between 2017 and September 2025, Israeli authorities opened 112 investigations, resulting in only one conviction.

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. 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". 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. 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. 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. 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^{[excessive citations]} 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. In October 2024 Al Jazeera reported that there were 1,423 recorded incidents of settler violence in the west bank since 7 October, with 321 incidents, Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, 319 incidents in Nablus Governorate and 298 in Hebron Governorate.

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. 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".