West Bank settler attacks reach 20-year high, over 220 Palestinians injured in 2025

Jewish Israeli settlers recently kidnapped and tortured two US-Palestinian brothers, leaving them hospitalized after their release.

News Desk

JUN 2, 2025

https://thecradle.co/articles/west-bank-settler-attacks-reach-20-year-high-over-220-palestinians-injured-in-2025

Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has reached unprecedented levels in 2025, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). 

In its latest weekly report, OCHA documented over 220 Palestinian injuries so far this year – an average of 44 per month – marking the highest monthly attack rate in the past 20 years.

The report highlighted the forcible displacement of the entire Bedouin community of Maghayer ad Deir – roughly consisting of 120 people – following the establishment of a fourth unauthorized Israeli settler outpost nearby.

In addition to settler violence, Israeli military operations have intensified across the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces carried out punitive demolitions that displaced 80 Palestinians since January. Since the start of this year, Israeli occupation forces have been carrying out a deadly military operation and siege against several West Bank cities. The operation began on 21 January and was dubbed Iron Wall. 

In May alone, 50 homes were destroyed in the Nour Shams Refugee Camp. In one case, residents of the Tulkarem Camp were given just a three-hour notice before the demolition of 20 buildings, the OCHA reported. 

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reports that over 33,000 Palestinians remain displaced from the Jenin, Nour Shams, and Tulkarem refugee camps and are unable to return home. Movement restrictions imposed by Israeli occupation forces in the Salfit governorate have also severely impacted nearly 90,000 Palestinians’ access to healthcare, education, and employment.

Meanwhile, Jewish Israeli settlers kidnapped and tortured two US-Palestinian brothers, Ghassan and Imad Jaber, in Burqa village near Ramallah. The brothers were eventually released and hospitalized, according to local sources and Palestinian state media.

The spike in violence comes as Israel has begun applying “Gaza-style” tactics to the occupied West Bank. Since the onset of its war in Gaza on 7 October 2023, Israeli occupation forces and settlers have killed around 1,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian sources.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled last July that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem, is illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements. Despite this, approximately 700,000 Israeli settlers now live in these territories, defying international law and deepening the humanitarian crisis.