The U.S. Position is Misleading
“Union for Justice”: Settlers Carried Out 45 Deadly Attacks Last Month, Resulting in the Martyrdom of One Palestinian and the Injury of More Than 130
7/9/2026 – Union for Justice Foundation
The “Union for Justice Foundation” stated that settler gangs carried out 45 deadly attacks last August in various areas across the West Bank, resulting in the martyrdom of a Palestinian and the injury of more than 130 others.
The foundation pointed out that settler attacks are continuously escalating and taking various forms, chief among them storming Palestinian villages and towns in armed groups, opening fire on citizens, and launching physical assaults using batons, stones, edged weapons, and gas.
It continued: “On the eleventh of last month, a large group of armed settlers launched an attack on citizens’ homes in Khirbet Hamroosh in the town of Sa’ir, northeast of Hebron, and fired live ammunition at the residents. This led to the martyrdom of the youth Karim Sanad Shalalda after sustaining a gunshot wound to the chest, while an elderly man sustained moderate injuries.”
On August 14th, a settler opened fire toward citizens in the town of Sa’ir, Hebron District, injuring the nurse Muhammad Nabil Mtawer (26 years old) with a bullet to the back. This resulted in paraplegia following spinal cord damage.
The foundation noted that these two attacks were among 45 other attacks that resulted in various injuries to more than 130 Palestinians.
The “Union for Justice” added: “These settler attacks also included burning vehicles and homes, destroying agricultural and livestock shelters, stealing and killing livestock, poisoning agricultural lands, uprooting and breaking trees, damaging crops, sabotaging water and electricity lines and graves, storming and desecrating mosques, destroying schools and stealing their contents, and forcibly seizing lands and homes.”
During last August, settlers seized a public park spanning an area of approximately two and a half dunams in the Wadi Hamad area in the village of Kafreineh (Kfar Ni’ma), west of Ramallah, and placed an iron gate at its entrance. Notably, the park was established about two and a half years ago with funding from the European Union through the Association of Palestinian Local Authorities, and is located within area designated as ‘Area B’.
Storming Islamic Shrines and Archaeological Sites
In addition to the daily raids carried out by settlers into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the accompanying performance of Talmudic rituals, settlers continue to storm numerous Islamic religious shrines and archaeological areas in the West Bank, claiming these areas are sacred according to Judaism—claims that experts and researchers confirm are false.
On the third of last month, dozens of settlers stormed three Islamic shrines: Dhul-Kifl Shrine, Dhul-Nun Shrine, and the Prophet Joshua (Yusha) Shrine in the town of Kifl Haris, north of Salfit Governorate, under the protection of Israeli occupation forces.
On August 26th, hundreds of settlers stormed Joseph’s Tomb shrine in the eastern area of Nablus, under the protection of occupation forces. Two days later, they stormed Awarta village, south of the city, and performed Talmudic rituals at its religious shrines: Al-Aziz Shrine, Al-Mufaddal Shrine, and the graves.
Establishing 8 New Outposts
During last August, settlers established eight new settlement outposts, three of which were in Ramallah. On the fourteenth of last month, settlers set up a tent and began establishing an outpost on the lands of the towns of Silwad and Deir Jarir. On the sixteenth, settlers set up tents south of Um Safa village. On the twenty-second of last month, settlers installed mobile homes on lands in the Marj ‘Si’ area located between Turmus Ayya and Al-Mughayyir.
Settlers also established a new outpost in the Al-Odeisa area in Sa’ir town, north of Hebron, and rebuilt an outpost that had been evacuated a few days prior in Wad Al-Rakhim in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.
In Tulkarm, settlers began establishing a new outpost on the lands of An-Nazla ash-Sharqiya village, north of the governorate, after bulldozing the lands, paving roads, laying electricity lines, and bringing about 20 prefabricated houses (“caravans”) into the area.
In Salfit, settlers established a new outpost on the lands of Deir Istiya town, northwest of the governorate. Settlers also established an outpost in the Jabal ‘Ain al-Faqih area in Nahalin town, Bethlehem District.
Over time, the majority of these outposts established on Palestinian lands transform into official settlements receiving governmental financial support and protection from the army and relevant authorities of the occupying power, as they are connected to nearby settlements through a road network and provided with water and electricity lines.
The U.S. Position is Misleading
These attacks come at a time when the U.S. Ambassador to the occupying state, Mike Huckabee, was forced to conduct a visit to the town of Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah, to hear from a number of its residents who hold American citizenship.
Huckabee is considered one of the most prominent faces of the Christian Zionist movement and one of the American politicians most attached to the settlement project. He uses the Israeli terminology for the West Bank, “Judea and Samaria,” and has previously denied the existence of an occupation or settlements, referring to them instead as “cities, neighborhoods, and communities.”
The “Union for Justice Foundation” emphasizes that the statements made by Huckabee on the sidelines of the visit are “misleading” and contrary to international law, which considers settlements in the West Bank illegal. This came as he described the attacking settlers as a “tiny minority” that does not represent hundreds of thousands of settlers, thereby separating their terrorist behavior from the settlement project as a whole.
Huckabee stressed that “the scenes of masked men holding batons and attacking Palestinian families’ homes harm Israel’s image,” indicating that the source of American concern regarding settler attacks is the image of the occupying state, rather than the harm inflicted upon Palestinians.
The U.S. Ambassador claimed that the Oslo Accords grant Israelis the right to build in Area C, and that the establishment and expansion of settlement communities are necessitated by the increase in the Israeli population.
The “Union for Justice Foundation” considers that Huckabee limited the problem of West Bank settlement—and the resulting Palestinian land confiscation, isolation of areas, displacement of citizens, demolition of homes, and daily assaults by settler gangs—to a “limited number of troublemakers,” while maintaining that settlement remains a legitimate, expandable project.
The foundation stresses that Huckabee’s visit to the Palestinian town of Turmus Ayya cannot be considered a shift in the U.S. position on settlements, as the ambassador did not threaten to stop support, impose serious sanctions, or hold the occupation government accountable for protecting settlers.
Below are the most prominent deadly attacks carried out by settlers last month, according to the monitoring and documentation of the “Union for Justice Foundation”:
1/8/2026: Settlers assault citizen Issam Mahmoud Radwan and his wife, Naheel Youssef, in the village of Beitillu, northwest of Ramallah, causing them injuries and bruises.
1/8/2026: Settlers attack a group of young men with pepper spray between the villages of Al-Mughayyir and Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, injuring three young men with various wounds and bruises.
2/8/2026: Settlers assault citizen Adham Al-Wawi and smash his vehicle in the Wadi Ma’in area in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, causing him injuries and bruises.
2/8/2026: Settlers attack bus driver Mutasem Al-Qaq while he is working in Jerusalem, severely beating him and causing injuries and bruises.
3/8/2026: Settlers attack citizen Yahya Olayan with pepper spray while he is on his land in the Abu Njeim area, southeast of Bethlehem, causing him suffocation, bruises, and injuries across various parts of his body.
5/8/2026: Settlers attack the eastern area of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, and assault citizens, injuring three of them with bruises.
5/8/2026: Settlers launch an attack on residents’ dwellings in Khirbet al-Tuba in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, setting fire to several dwellings, causing several residents—including women and children—to suffer from suffocation.
6/8/2026: Settlers attack the family of Nayef Ka’abneh east of Al-Taybeh, east of Ramallah, injuring three of them with varying degrees of severity.
6/8/2026: Settlers attack Khirbet al-Tuba in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, beating residents, which leads to the injury of six people with wounds and bruises, including a woman and two children. They also burn five dwellings and destroy solar panels powering the hamlet.
7/8/2026: Settlers attack citizens in the village of Beit Dajan, east of Nablus, injuring three with wounds and bruises.
7/8/2026: Settlers attack Abu Njeim village, southeast of Bethlehem, firing live ammunition and injuring a citizen. They also attack the ambulance arriving to treat him, breaking its windows and spraying its crew with pepper spray, causing suffocation among the paramedics.
7/8/2026: Settlers attack citizens in the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, injuring one person with wounds and bruises.
8/8/2026: Settlers attack citizens in Wad Al-Rakhim, south of Yatta, south of Hebron, injuring six citizens—one with live gunfire and five others with bruises and wounds.
8/8/2026: Settlers attack citizens while they are near the Nabi Saleh Mosque in the Al-Jalatiya neighborhood in Idhna, west of Hebron, physically assaulting them and firing live ammunition into the air, injuring several of them with bruises and wounds.
8/8/2026: Settlers attack citizens in the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, injuring two people with wounds and bruises.
13/8/2026: Settlers attack citizens from the Al-Jabareen family in the Jabal Al-Qarn area in Al-Minya, east of Bethlehem, injuring two people with wounds and bruises.
13/8/2026: Settlers attack a vehicle with pepper spray between the towns of Arraba and Ya’bad, southwest of Jenin, injuring three citizens, including a young girl.
15/8/2026: Settlers attack citizens in Umm al-Kheir village in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, injuring two women, two young men, and a child with bruises and contusions.
15/8/2026: Settlers assault a 16-year-old youth near the Ein Shibli checkpoint, southeast of Tubas and the Northern Jordan Valley, causing him injuries and bruises.
15/8/2026: Settlers from the pastoral outpost built on Al-Mas’udiya lands belonging to Burqa, northwest of Nablus, assault three citizens by beating them and spraying them with pepper spray.
16/8/2026: Settlers, backed by occupation soldiers, attack the Al-Ja’bari neighborhood in the Al-Ras area of Hebron, injuring 10 citizens, including two by live gunfire.
16/8/2026: Settlers attack the Zalloum family in the Beit Einun area, east of Hebron, assaulting more than 20 citizens. Meanwhile, occupation forces arrest about 12 young men and transfer them to a nearby settlement outpost for interrogation.
16/8/2026: Settlers attack the vehicle of Jerusalemite doctor Majd Alyan Dweik while he is in the Jannata area, east of Bethlehem, fracturing his arm and smashing his vehicle’s windows.
17/8/2026: Settlers assault two young men in the eastern area of Beita, south of Nablus, inflicting wounds and bruises that require their hospitalization.
20/8/2026: Settlers assault a young man while he is working in the Al-Buqai’a plain in the Jordan Valley, causing him injuries and bruises.
20/8/2026: Settlers attack a Palestinian vehicle between the villages of Al-Mughayyir and Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, causing it to overturn and injuring five of its passengers with wounds and bruises.
21/8/2026: A group of armed settlers attacks citizens’ homes with stones in the “Deir Shams” area near Al-Dhahiriya and Al-Samou’, south of Hebron, injuring five citizens and stealing several sheep.
21/8/2026: Settlers discharge pepper spray into the face of a young man in Shu’afat, north of occupied Jerusalem, causing him injuries and bruises.
21/8/2026: Settlers assault a citizen in the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, injuring him with wounds and bruises.
22/8/2026: Settlers attack several homes in the Al-Naqab area in Arraba, south of Jenin, and beat citizens, injuring two young men with wounds and bruises.
22/8/2026: Settlers attack Al-Rakeez village in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron Governorate, severely beating citizen Sa’eed Al-Amour and inflicting wounds and bruises.
22/8/2026: Settlers attack a 15-year-old child and beat him near the town of Tammun, southeast of Tubas, causing him injuries and bruises.
24/8/2026: Settlers launch an attack on Khirbet Ghuwein in Al-Samou’, Hebron District, injuring three citizens with wounds and bruises.
27/8/2026: Settlers attack citizens’ vehicles with stones on the main road in Kisan town, east of Bethlehem, injuring citizen Ziad Sa’eed Ghazzal with wounds and bruises after he is hit by a stone in the abdomen, in addition to causing material damage to other vehicles.
28/8/2026: Settlers attack a citizen and his son in Al-Khader town, south of Bethlehem, resulting in bruises and injuries to both.
29/8/2026: Settlers assault two sisters, Muna and Aliya Mahmoud Hamed (aged 75 and 65), while they are picking figs in Silwad, northeast of Ramallah, causing them injuries and bruises.
29/8/2026: Settlers attack citizens in Arraba town, south of Jenin, injuring two with wounds and bruises.
29/8/2026: Settlers attack citizens and foreign solidarity activists in Khallet Al-Homs in Yatta, south of Hebron, injuring several of them with bruises.
29/8/2026: Settlers attack a house in the Ras Al-Ain area in Qusra town, south of Nablus, injuring two citizens with bruises.
29/8/2026: Settlers assault citizen Mahmoud Al-Tubasi, his wife, and a press crew in Jalud village, south of Nablus.
30/8/2026: Settlers assault bus driver Khaled Owaisat while he is performing his work in Jabal al-Mukabbir, southeast of occupied Jerusalem, causing him injuries and bruises.
31/8/2026: Settlers attack citizens in Burqa village, east of Ramallah, leaving a woman in her fifties with head bleeding and bruises. They also assault her 10-year-old child by spraying pepper spray in his face, causing suffocation. Furthermore, they raid a house in the eastern area of the village, beating the women and children inside, smashing contents, and attempting to set fire to a scrapyard and a livestock shed.
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