Did you know that Truthout is a nonprofit and independently funded by readers like you? If you value what we do, please support our work with a donation.
Israeli settlers have rampaged through multiple towns in the occupied West Bank for two nights in a row, unleashing a campaign of destruction and terror on Palestinian residents with the backing of the Israeli and U.S. governments.
On Saturday, Israeli settlers attacked at least six communities, including Jenin in the north and Masafer Yatta in the south. Settlers set homes and cars on fire as they stormed the towns, Palestinian newswire Wafa reported.
Then, on Sunday, settlers carried out more attacks, across four villages around Nablus. Chilling footage shows dozens of settlers storming a neighborhood south of Nablus before sunrise on Sunday, running into residential areas and setting Palestinian homes and vehicles ablaze. They demolished at least one house, Wafa reported.
At least 10 Palestinians were injured in attacks on Sunday night, as settlers beat and pepper sprayed citizens and set fire to homes with Palestinians inside. The attacks happened amid Eid al-Fitr celebrations marking the end of Ramadan.
The simultaneous raids were described by observers as some of the worst ever carried out by Israeli West Bank settlers.
“They burned everything, smashed the windows, and the fire consumed all the furniture,” Hussam al-Zu’bi, a resident of a town south of Jenin, told Middle East Eye of his home. Zu’bi was visiting his uncle at the time of the raid, which consisted of over 200 settlers, he said, and his house was lit on fire by the time he came home.
“They even tore down the roof tiles and threw Molotov cocktails through the roof and windows, and the house immediately burst into flames,” he said.
The raids come after an Israeli was killed in a car collision with a vehicle reportedly driven by a Palestinian on Saturday. Settlers in the illegal Elon Moreh settlement held a funeral for him, and the government said it was investigating claims that the car crash was deliberate, despite no evidence suggesting this was the case.
The raids are partially the result of months of incitement by top Israeli officials like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Last month, Smotrich said that the government should adopt a policy of total ethnic cleansing and annexation of what remains of the West Bank, saying, “there is no other solution.”
Settler attacks have hit record highs in recent years amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza and have been labelled as “pogroms” by Palestinian rights’ advocates and human rights groups. They are tacitly or explicitly protected by the Israeli government and military, which has sought to accelerate illegal settlement expansion and annexation in recent years, the UN Human Rights Office said in a report last week.
The office said that, in the 12-month period ending in October 2025, there were 1,735 incidents of settler violence across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This is up from 1,400 in the previous reporting period.
One witness told Middle East Eye that the Israeli military arrived in his town after the settlers withdrew and closed the main entrance, obstructing the entry of firefighters and ambulances.
None of the Israeli settlers have been detained for attacks thus far, Israeli media reports. This follows longstanding impunity for Israeli officers and settlers, even when they commit heinous acts of violence. The Israeli officers who shot and killed four members of a Palestinian family, including two young boys, as they headed home in their car in the West Bank last week have not even been brought in for questioning, Israeli outlets report.
A Palestinian man said that masked Israeli settlers sexually assaulted him last week when dozens of them rampaged through his village in the middle of the night. Israeli settlers bound the man, Qusai Abu al-Kebash, by the hands and legs, zip-tied his genitals, and then paraded him through the community while beating him, he said. He told CNN that he thought he would die, and hasn’t been able to sleep since the assault.
Rather than detaining Israeli settlers carrying out the violence, Israeli forces have detained Palestinians. On Monday, Israeli authorities detained at least six Palestinians in Hebron, Wafa reported, including journalist Lama Khater, while on Sunday they detained at least two children during an Israeli raid.
Israeli forces and settlers continued raids on Monday, with settlers uprooting dozens of olive trees in Palestinian-owned land near Nablus, as military officers also conducted raids near Ramallah in the evening, escorting violent settlers across towns, Palestinian newswire Wafa reported.
Wafa also reported on Monday that settlers stormed a boys’ school in a town south of Nablus, spray painting racist graffiti on the walls and replacing the Palestinian flag that flew above the building with an Israeli flag.
Urgent Appeal for Your Support
Truthout relies on individual donations to publish independent journalism, free from political and corporate influence. In fact, we’re almost entirely funded by readers like you.
Unfortunately, donations are down. At a moment when independent journalism is urgently needed, we are struggling to meet our operational costs due to increasing political censorship.
Truthout may end this month in the red without additional help. We still need to raise $7,000. Please make a tax-deductible one-time or monthly donation if you can.