JORDAN VALLEY, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), Palestinian families are being forcibly displaced in the northern Jordan Valley while settler attacks intensify across areas north of Ramallah, underscoring a widening campaign of coercion against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank.
In the Bedouin village of Ras Ein al-Auja, north of Jericho, Palestinian families have begun dismantling their homes and leaving the area after a sharp rise in daily attacks by Israeli settlers. Residents say the assaults include home break-ins, harassment, grazing livestock inside homes and farmland, and blocking access to water sources, all without protection for civilians.
Ras Ein al-Auja lies along a strategic corridor between Jericho and Ramallah and was home to roughly 700 people from about 130 families who had lived there for decades. According to a report by the Associated Press (PA), citing human rights groups, at least 26 families have already left in recent days, with others preparing to relocate to scattered areas across the West Bank.
Residents say that when they attempt to resist or document settler violence, Israeli occupation forces intervene against Palestinians rather than stopping the attacks. Several villagers reported arrests of Palestinians following complaints, while calls to Israeli police went unanswered.
“We are dismantling the most valuable things we own without knowing where we will go next,” said Hassan Mohammad, a village resident, adding that entire families have lost their livestock and livelihoods.
Another resident, Iyad Ishaq, said settlers terrorize women and children “day and night,” noting that the village has been cut off from water for days. Naif Zayed said the harassment has continued for nearly two years and escalated further after settlers established a new outpost just meters from homes in December.
Human rights organizations cited in the AP report said the surge in settler violence has emptied most nearby Palestinian communities in Area C, which makes up about 60 percent of the West Bank and has remained under Israeli military control since the 1990s. Attacks intensified after 7 October 2023, amid the broader Israeli genocide against Palestinians.
At the same time, areas north of Ramallah have seen renewed settler aggression. In the town of Turmus Ayya, settlers carried out land-leveling and destruction near the home of the Abu Awad family, damaging agricultural land and surrounding infrastructure. Witnesses said the work was carried out under the protection of Israeli occupation forces, who blocked residents from approaching the area.
In a related incident, groups of settlers gathered at the eastern entrance of the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, raising fears of further attacks. Local residents warned that these actions are part of a broader policy aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinians and seizing more land, and called on international and human rights bodies to intervene.
Families who have already fled Ras Ein al-Auja are now scattered among villages near Jericho, others close to al-Khalil, while some were forced to sell their livestock and attempt to move into urban areas. Others remain in the village, continuing to dismantle their homes as their future remains uncertain.
