Record-breaking Israeli settler violence in 2024‎

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) registered 1,400 incidents by settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, including physical assaults, arson attacks, raids on Palestinian communities and the destruction of fruit trees.

According to Middle East Eye, this amounts to nearly four incidents per day, resulting in the killing and wounding of Palestinians, damage to their property or both. Moreover, data shows that settlers killed at least seven Palestinians during the first half of 2024.

Around 4,700 people were internally displaced across the West Bank over the past year, with 12 percent citing settler violence and access restrictions as the reason for their displacement, Ocha said.

Settler violence is not a new phenomenon in the occupied West Bank, where large swathes of territory are under Israeli civil and military control.

However, since Israel's war on Gaza began in October 2023, land seizures and violent attacks aimed at forcing Palestinians to abandon their homes have spiked.

The attacks have coincided with sweeping movement restrictions imposed by the Israeli army, denying Palestinians access to cities, towns and villages.

Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live in roughly 300 illegal settlements in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, all of which have been built since Israel captured the territories in the 1967 conflict.

Under international law, settlement construction in an occupied territory is illegal.

At least 800 Palestinians from the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since the war began last year, with around 6,500 more wounded, according to Palestinian health officials.