Violence and Settler Expansion in the West Bank

Translated by Marta Laino

Between the evening of 19 July and the early hours of 20 July, Israeli settlers, later joined by Israeli soldiers, carried out a raid in Deir Jarir, in the West Bank, during which two Palestinian men were killed.

When settlers operate under the protection of the Israeli military, as in Deir Jarir

The raid carried out by Israeli settlers in Deir Jarir, which began on the evening of Sunday, 19 July, was particularly violent. Palestinian residents said that shortly after 9 p.m., a group of Israeli settlers from a nearby settlement arrived, claiming they were searching for stolen livestock. At that point, Israeli soldiers and police officers joined the settlers, protecting them as they attempted to steal sheep from residents of Deir Jarir. When the villagers raised the alarm, tensions escalated further. Israeli soldiers then shot two Palestinian men, triggering a series of successive raids by Israeli settlers that continued until after 2 a.m. on Monday, 20 July. Saber Ajaj, a relative of Odeh Farajna, one of the two victims, said that he found Odeh dead moments after the shooting, stating: "The moment I put him in the car, I knew he was dead. The purpose of this shooting was to kill." Adel, the father of Abdul Adel Rashid Abu Mukh, the other victim, who was only 26 years old, also said that the raid involved cooperation between the Israeli military and the settlers.

These raids, such as the one in Deir Jarir, are part of a broader pattern of escalating settler violence, while Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government is simultaneously accelerating the expansion of Israeli control over land in the West Bank. Arbitrary checkpoints and other restrictions aimed at isolating Palestinian communities in the West Bank have been reinforced by the Netanyahu government's plan to approve new illegal settlements as part of a political strategy ahead of the upcoming national elections. "The killing in Deir Jarir is an example of how Israel is advancing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank: settlers invade and loot, while the army and police accompany them and shoot at Palestinians trying to defend their homes and property," said Yuli Novak, executive director of B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation that monitors and documents violations in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Defending Palestinian Villages Through Anti-Settler Patrols

Small Palestinian villages are attempting to resist Israeli settler violence, as in the case of Sinjil in the West Bank, where Palestinians have organised night patrols to defend themselves against repeated settler incursions and land seizures. This system was documented in a Reuters field report published in June 2026. A group of around 15 Palestinians keeps watch over the valleys below in the hope of spotting an imminent settler attack, while others patrol the town of Sinjil. The two groups coordinate through WhatsApp, where volunteers and residents report possible settler incursions in real time. Whenever someone spots a group of settlers, they alert the others by phone, mobilising additional residents to confront and repel them. For example, between the evening of Thursday, 16 July, and the early hours of Friday, 17 July, volunteer lookouts spotted a group of masked settlers descending the hillside towards the town. As more residents gathered to defend the area, some set fire to roadside vegetation in an attempt to block the settlers' advance. The settlers then began throwing stones and using slingshots to launch projectiles at Palestinian residents.

This cooperation between Palestinian residents and volunteers provides a degree of protection for Sinjil against escalating settler violence. "The army protects them and doesn't stop them. We call the army. We call the police. It's all in vain," said Fadi Alwan, one of the volunteers involved in the anti-settler patrols, describing what he sees as coordination between settlers, the police and the military. Consequently, these community-organised night patrols have become part of everyday life in Sinjil and represent the only means of protecting residents from settler violence, as neither the military nor the police provide them with protection. This situation reflects a broader context in which such attacks have intensified steadily since October 2023, according to the head of the Sinjil local council, Moataz Tawafsha.

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