5/11/2025 – The Union for Justice Foundation
Information and data available to “The Union for Justice Foundation” indicate that attacks and assaults carried out by settlers on Palestinian citizens and property in the West Bank have reached dangerous and unprecedented levels.
According to “The Union for Justice Foundation,” these (daily and intensive) attacks coinciding with the olive harvesting season amounted to more than (220) during October, leaving one citizen dead and more than 140 injured with various wounds.
The foundation explained that the young man, Jihad Mohammed Ajaj (26 years old) from Deir Jarir in the Ramallah district, was killed after a settler fired bullets at a group of young men from the village, raising the number of citizens killed by settler gunfire since the beginning of this year to 13, and since October 7, 2023, to 34.
Dozens of citizens were also injured by settler gunfire and poisonous pepper spray, in addition to other injuries from direct physical assaults carried out by settlers using sticks and stones.
During October, “The Union for Justice Foundation” recorded that settlers cut down or damaged more than (2,500) trees, including olive, almond, and citrus trees, and burned thousands of dunams planted with wheat, barley, and vetch, as well as burned or damaged more than 50 Palestinian vehicles.
According to the foundation’s monitoring, Ramallah witnessed the highest number of these attacks, with approximately (60) assaults carried out by settlers on villages and towns in the governorate, followed by Nablus with (55) attacks, Hebron with (37), and Jericho and the Jordan Valley with around (30) assaults.
Settler attacks included direct shooting at Palestinians, assaulting them with sticks, stones, and dogs, burning homes, vehicles, and public institutions, destroying their contents, stealing property and livestock, establishing new settlement outposts, blocking Palestinian roads with barriers and cement blocks, installing iron gates, and kidnapping citizens for hours before releasing them.
They also raided remote Palestinian areas such as hamlets and Bedouin communities, forcing residents to leave their homes, cutting and burning fruit trees, stealing their produce, targeting Palestinian water sources, killing and stealing livestock, and carrying out deliberate vehicular attacks.
The attacks were not limited to Palestinians but also included foreign solidarity activists and peace activists participating in agricultural activities, some of whom were injured or bruised.
Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Jerusalem and Hebron are subjected to daily raids by thousands of settlers. The Jerusalem Ministry of Waqf recorded 9,820 settlers entering Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Jewish holidays alone: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Simchat Torah.
Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu, accompanied by extremist Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, entered the Ibrahimi Mosque on October 8 and performed Talmudic rituals.
Settlers also regularly raid many Islamic religious sites and Palestinian archaeological sites, particularly in Nablus, Hebron, Salfit, and Jericho, claiming they are Jewish sites.
By the end of 2024, the number of settlers in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, exceeded 77,000, spread over 180 settlements and 256 outposts, of which 138 are classified as rural and agricultural. Israeli settlement is mainly concentrated in the central and southern West Bank.
Settler Attacks and Army Protection
The foundation confirms that most of these attacks coincide with the presence of the Israeli army, which now provides protection and support to settlers while attacking Palestinian villages and towns, in addition to political, financial, and legal support from the Israeli government dominated by the far-right.
Recently, the Israeli army claimed that settler attacks in the West Bank by the “Hill Youth” group got out of control and became more violent. Reality and dozens of recorded attacks contradict this claim, as these attacks would not have occurred without the presence and protection of Israeli soldiers.
According to a statement from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the olive harvesting season in the West Bank witnessed the highest level of settler attacks in five years.
Multiple Attacks, One Goal
“The Union for Justice Foundation” believes these attacks cannot be considered isolated incidents but are part of the Israeli government’s plans and strategic vision for the West Bank, aiming to create a hostile environment for Palestinian citizens.
The Israeli government seeks to continue annexation plans, divide the West Bank through settlements and connecting roads, and transform it into cantons and isolated islands far from any political framework that could develop into the nucleus of a Palestinian state, in addition to creating a demographic balance between Jews and Palestinians in the occupied areas of 1967.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) previously warned that the West Bank is witnessing a dangerous escalation of settler violence, leading to forced displacement of Palestinians and paving the way for actual annexation of the land.
Key Settler Attacks in October, According to “The Union for Justice Foundation” Monitoring
4/10/2025: Settlers attack the village of Al-Zawidin in Yatta Badia, south of Hebron, firing live bullets at citizens, injuring a young man in his foot and causing bruises and contusions to several others.
6/10/2025: Settlers attack several peace activists in Shalal Al-Awja village, north of Jericho, causing various injuries.
8/10/2025: Armed settlers attack the town of Attara, northwest of Ramallah, injuring citizens with live bullets, including a critical head injury and a moderate abdominal injury, and injuring a woman after beating her inside her home with her child.
9/10/2025: Settlers assault Mahmoud Abdul Rahman Raddad and his wife while working their land between Al-Zawiya and Rafat in Salfit, stealing their olive harvest.
9/10/2025: Settlers attack the elderly Ouda Ali Ouda Ghazal (75) near Kisan village east of Bethlehem, causing bruises and contusions.
10/10/2025: Settlers attack farmers Jamal Zidan and family, Abdel Karim Mansour and family, and Hajj Khader Mansour and family near the Maslaba area opposite the Yaqir settlement in Deir Istiya, northwest Salfit.
10/10/2025: Dozens of settlers attack Bita town south of Nablus, targeting olive pickers, injuring about 36 citizens by bullets, beating, and asphyxiation, and burning approximately 15 vehicles.
11/10/2025: Settlers from a rural outpost between Al-Zawiya and Rafat, Salfit, attack farmer Sadiq Youssef Abu Naba’a, his mother Hameda Abu Naba’a, and more than twenty other family members during olive picking, beating them severely, damaging vehicles, and firing live bullets.
11/10/2025: Settlers under army protection attack olive pickers in Jureish, Aqraba, and Qablan, south of Nablus, preventing them from continuing work, injuring elderly Sami Abu Saqr (70).
12/10/2025: Settlers fire bullets at a citizen in Surif, northwest Hebron, injuring hand and abdomen.
13/10/2025: Settlers attack several farmers from the Taqatqa family in Wadi Saif, Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem, beating them with sticks and stones, causing five injuries including fractures; they also set fire to Muhammad Taqatqa’s vehicle.
14/10/2025: Settlers attack Douma village council crew, south of Nablus, while opening Wadi Nasser road, shooting directly, physically assaulting workers, damaging the council vehicle, and stealing olives.
14/10/2025: A settler kidnaps four citizens from Beit Ur Al-Fauqa, west of Ramallah, after assaulting them and hours after attempting to abduct another young man.
16/10/2025: Settlers assault two elderly men in Al-Rashayda village east of Bethlehem while picking olives, causing bruises and wounds.
17/10/2025: Settlers assault a young man in Sebastia, northwest Nablus, who required hospitalization.
17/10/2025: Settlers assault Mahmoud Abdul Fattah Hajaj from Farkha, south of Salfit, during olive picking, causing wounds and bruises.
18/10/2025: Armed settlers attack citizens in Ishqara, southeast of Yatta, south of Hebron, injuring Nabil and Rehan Al-Nawaja with bruises.
19/10/2025: Settlers carry out multiple attacks targeting farmers and foreign solidarity activists in Termas’iya, northeast Ramallah, injuring a woman, a young man, and an activist, and setting fire to four vehicles and stealing olives.
20/10/2025: Settlers storm Al-Tahadi School in Khirbet Abziq, north of Tubas, and steal water tanks owned by Nabil Ahmed Sawafteh.
20/10/2025: Settlers fence lands in Umm Al-Qaba, Samra, and Al-Marmala in northern Jordan Valley, preparing to seize them, covering over 4,000 dunams owned by more than 300 families.
24/10/2025: Settlers assault citizens Fadi and Khaled Mukhaymar in Sebastia during olive picking, beating them and stealing olives.
24/10/2025: Settlers destroy the contents of Khirbet Tana mosque, east of Nablus.
25/10/2025: Settlers attack olive pickers in Wadi Al-Hajj Issa, Aqraba, south of Nablus, lightly injuring three citizens.
25/10/2025: Settlers use pepper spray against farmers in Kafr Malik, east of Ramallah, causing suffocation and burns.
25/10/2025: Settlers attack villagers in Deir Nizam, northwest Ramallah, beating them with rifle butts, injuring three with wounds and contusions.
25/10/2025: Settlers attack farmers in Al-Minya, south of Bethlehem, severely beating one citizen, breaking his arm before the occupation forces arrested him.
26/10/2025: Settlers plow about 500 dunams of farmland in Sikka and Beit Awa, west of Hebron, preparing to seize it.
27/10/2025: Settlers sabotage water networks on land belonging to citizen Jamal Daraghmeh in Khillat Khader Al-Farsiya, northern Jordan Valley.
28/10/2025: Settlers attack olive pickers in Qutain, north of Kafr Qaddum, east Qalqilya, injuring two citizens, one seriously.
28/10/2025: Settlers fence land in Umm Al-Jamal and Al-Farsiya, northern Jordan Valley, over 1,200 dunams, partly privately owned and partly by the Latin Patriarchate, preparing to seize it.
28/10/2025: Settlers fire at olive pickers in Hawara, south of Nablus, forcing them to leave; one citizen broke his foot while fleeing.
29/10/2025: Settlers attack farmers in Al-Sawiya, south of Nablus, injuring the deputy village council head with fractures and bruises.
31/10/2025: Dozens of settlers attack Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya, burning 3 vehicles, 2 tractors, and a bulldozer.
31/10/2025: Settlers attack farmers’ vehicles in Beit Lid, east of Tulkarm, throwing stones and burning a tractor and a vehicle.
31/10/2025: Settlers attack homes and vehicles in Al-Zahra, Beita, south of Nablus, breaking vehicle windows.
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