WEST BANK, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), The Settlement and Wall Resistance Commission has reported a sharp rise in settler attacks in the occupied West Bank during the first seven months of 2026, recording a 63% increase compared with the same period last year.
In a statement on Tuesday, the commission said it had documented 4,113 attacks from the beginning of the year through the end of July, compared with 2,524 attacks during the same period in 2025, an increase of 1,589 incidents.
According to the commission, settler attacks this year exceeded the levels recorded in the corresponding months of 2025 without exception, indicating a widening scope and growing pace of assaults.
The attacks reached their highest levels in June and July, with 748 and 798 incidents respectively, compared with 442 and 466 attacks during the same two months last year.
Although the monthly pattern did not rise steadily, the commission said attacks remained at high levels before intensifying noticeably around midyear, reflecting their repeated nature and expanding geographic reach.
The commission stressed that these attacks cannot be treated as isolated incidents, but rather as part of what it described as a “political, security and legal enabling environment” that has strengthened since the formation of Israel’s far-right government at the end of 2022.
The escalation coincided with the expansion of settlement outposts, especially pastoral ones, the arming of settlers and the integration of some of them into security formations, along with military protection and declining accountability for crimes committed against Palestinians.
The commission also pointed to the growing functional overlap between the Israeli army and settlers in imposing control over land and restricting Palestinians’ access to their land and sources of livelihood.
It warned that hesitant international positions and weak deterrence and accountability measures have helped turn settler attacks from scattered incidents into an organized tool to impose new geographic realities and push Palestinian communities toward shrinkage and displacement.
