UN: 2,000 Palestinians displaced in West Bank due to settler violence since 2022

Some 2,000 Palestinians have been displaced in the occupied West Bank due to settler violence since 2022, with a recorded 43 per cent spike in settler-driven displacement since 7 October, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

In a report issued yesterday, OCHA said at least 111 families, including 356 children, in the occupied West Bank, have been displaced since 7 October.

According to the report, 14 Palestinians, half of them children, were forced to flee Khirbet Zatuna herding community in the south of the occupied West Bank, after armed settlers threatened to kill them if they did not leave. In late October, Palestinians were forced to dismantle about 50 buildings and evacuate the area along with their 5,000 livestock.

OCHA said it had previously documented settler attacks on this community, most recently on the 12, 21 and 26 of October, where now about two-thirds of the Palestinian families that make up the Bedouin community have become displaced.

The other mass displacement: while eyes are on Gaza, settlers advance on West Bank herders

At least 98 Palestinian families, comprising 828 people, including 313 children, have been displaced from 15 herding communities across the occupied West Bank amid settler violence or increased movement restrictions, since 7 October.

The report said: “Since 7 October, OCHA has recorded 230 settler attacks against Palestinians… This reflects a daily average of seven incidents, compared with three since the beginning of the year. Over one-third of these incidents included threats with firearms, including shootings.”

In nearly half of all incidents, Israeli forces were either accompanying or actively supporting the attackers.