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Humanitarian Crisis Deepens As Israeli Violence Surges in the West Bank
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In the heart of the West Bank, an alarming surge in Israeli violence, displacement, and unrest has left communities in disarray, prompting urgent calls for international intervention.
As of Jan. 3, 2024, three Palestinian families consisting of 14 individuals — including four children — were abruptly stripped of their homes in Jabal Al Mukkabir, East Jerusalem. Their homes succumbed to demolition, casualties of a relentless policy enforced by Israeli authorities citing the lack of nearly unattainable building permits.
Worse still, Jan. 5, 2024, witnessed 162 Palestinians murdered and 296 wounded. A suspected Israeli bombardment on a Rafah residence overnight claimed six lives.
Expulsion of Palestinians Amid Israeli violence in the West Bank
In a troubling revelation, close to 2,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced since 2022 due to escalating settler violence, with a staggering 43% surge recorded since Oct. 7, 2023. The crisis epicenter was Khirbat Zanuta, a community in the southern West Bank, where 24 houses with 141 people — many of them children — had to be evacuated. This extreme action was taken in response to direct threats made by armed Israeli settlers, who threatened to “kill the Palestinians if they did not leave their homes.”
On Oct. 28, 2023, the affected families suffered the destruction of around 50 residential and animal structures before evacuating the area with their 5,000 livestock.
The scale of displacement is not limited to Khirbat Zanuta. Across 15 Bedouin communities in the West Bank, a total of 828 individuals, 313 of them children, have been displaced since Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Middle East Monitor. Settler violence has increased dramatically from three cases of hostility per day on average in 2023 to seven per day on average since the beginning of 2024.
On Oct. 9, 2023, 40 people were displaced from Al Ganoub, as armed Israeli settlers raided the community, threatening residents at gunpoint with an ultimatum to leave within an hour. Similarly, on Oct. 12, 2023, eight households, totaling 51 people, were displaced from the Bedouin community in Nablus after facing gun-wielding settlers issuing threats of death and arson during the night.
Settler-driven displacement trends
The influx of illegal Israeli settlers precedes the latest escalation of Oct. 7, 2023. In September, OCHA revealed that 1,105 people from 28 communities — approximately 12% of their population — had already been displaced since 2022 due to settler violence and the prevention of access to cropland.
Increased movement restrictions imposed by Israeli forces were cited as the primary reason for this displacement. In 2022 and 2023, 1,032 and 1,352 Palestinians were further displaced as a result of home demolitions conducted by Israeli authorities.
Peace Now, an Israeli settlement watchdog, has issued a warning about an “unprecedented surge” in unauthorized moves by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. The report reveals the establishment of a record number of nine unauthorized settlement colonies since the start of the Gaza genocide in October.
Harassment and damage to Palestinian properties
OCHA has documented 171 settler attacks against Palestinians during the period under review, resulting in 26 Palestinian fatalities, 115 incidences of property damage to Palestinians, and 30 incidents involving both.
1,229 settler hostilities in the West Bank occurred in 2023 alone. These incidents caused property damage or casualties among the Palestinian people. 913 of these cases resulted in property damage, 163 in casualties, and 153 in both — what became marked by OCHA as the highest number of settler attacks against Palestinians since 2006.
As the war on Gaza heightens, urgent appeals are being voiced for international involvement to work toward a reasonable and sustainable resolution in the occupied West Bank.
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