State-backed Israeli settler violence forces West Bank displacement: HRW

What the report says

Human Rights Watch says escalating violence by Israeli settlers, combined with continued settlement expansion, is driving forced displacement in the occupied West Bank and putting dozens of Palestinian communities at risk of disappearance. The report, published Thursday and summarized by Al Jazeera, says Israeli authorities are helping enable the abuses through weapons, funding and legal protection for settlers.

Al Jazeera reported that HRW investigated attacks in seven West Bank communities in April and May, including places in the Ramallah, Nablus and Jordan Valley areas. The group says some assaults involved armed settlers acting near or alongside Israeli military units, while soldiers were present but did not stop the attacks. The reported abuses include arson, property destruction, theft, detentions and other forms of violence and intimidation.

The rights group argues the pattern has created a coercive environment that is pushing Palestinians to leave their homes. It cited UN humanitarian data saying 107 communities, affecting 5,900 Palestinians, have been fully or partly displaced by settler violence since January 2023. The same reporting said another 32,000 Palestinians were expelled by the Israeli military from camps in the northern West Bank since January 2025.

HRW called for targeted sanctions on people implicated in abuses, a suspension of weapons transfers to Israel, and a trade ban on products from illegal settlements. As background, international rights groups have long criticized Israel’s settlement project in the West Bank as a major barrier to a future Palestinian state, though Israel disputes many such characterizations.