Dozens of Israeli settlers rampaged through the village of Jalud in the occupied West Bank, blocking roads, setting fire to homes and vehicles, and preventing displaced Palestinian families from returning to their homes overnight.
More than 100 Israeli settlers rampaged through the village south of Nablus, preventing a displaced Palestinian family from returning to their home, local sources said.
Settlers set ablaze two homes belonging to the Tubasi family in Jalud, hours after the family tried to return to them under an Israeli court decision after nearly two months of displacement following repeated harassment and violence by settlers, local sources added.
Villagers tried to confront the settlers before Israeli forces arrived at the scene, the sources added.
The fires caused extensive damage to the two homes, rendering them uninhabitable while the attack spread panic among residents, the sources noted.
According to the sources, Israeli forces provided protection to the settlers and sent additional military reinforcements to the area.
Israeli forces also compelled members of the Tubasi family to evacuate their homes again at gunpoint, the sources told Anadolu.
There has been a sharp increase in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, often carried out with the backing of Israeli forces and the occupation government against Palestinians, their lands and property in villages and towns across the occupied West Bank with the purpose of forcing Palestinians out of their homes and lands.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recorded more than 1,330 settler-related attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank from January to late July, averaging six a day and representing the fastest pace in about 20 years.
In August, Israeli settlers besieged Palestinian homes for three weeks in Qusra, south of Nablus. Surrounded by armed Israeli settlers and military battalions and convoys, the families were cut off from food, water, and electricity. The United Nations reported that the residents were “trapped inside their homes in a state of terror, unable to attend to their basic needs and without access to water or electricity”.
Residents of Qusra say the siege that settlers began on August 9 is still effectively in place, as families in several homes on the outskirts of the village are unable to leave without coordinating with the military. They are also afraid to do so as settlers remain in the area, and they are convinced that the Israeli extremists will take over their homes, as they have after carrying out similar sieges in nearby towns.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it had documented more than 1,330 settler attacks resulting in casualties or property damage across 250 Palestinian communities since the beginning of 2026, as of 20 July. The attacks amounted to more than six attacks a day.
The attacks included sustained harassment, intimidation and the destruction of Palestinian homes, farmland and livelihoods.
“To force Palestinians out, settlers resort to harassment, intimidation and violence, with the backing of the Israeli government and military,” Peace Now said.
“No one is putting the pressure on Israel or on the Israeli authorities to stop this and so the settlers feel it, they feel the complete impunity that they’re just free to continue to do this,” said Allegra Pacheco, director of the West Bank Protection Consortium, a group of NGOs working to support Palestinian communities against displacement.
More than 2,300 Palestinians had been displaced in 2026 as a result of settler attacks and related access restrictions, according to OCHA.
Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem across roughly 300 settlements and outposts. The settlements are regarded as illegal under international law, according to the International Court of Justice.
Human rights groups say the Israeli occupation has allowed the settlers to operate with total impunity in their attacks against Palestinians. Israeli organization B’Tselem has accused Israel of actively aiding the settlers’ violence “as part of a strategy to cement the takeover of Palestinian land”.
The UN also warned last year that settler attacks were being carried out “with the acquiescence, support, and in some cases participation, of Israeli security forces”.
