Husam MaaroufEvery morning, Khaled Abeyat walks through his olive grove in Ein al-Duyuk, west of Jericho, inspecting what remains amid escalating Israeli settler violence, home demolitions and attacks on solidarity activists.
Some of the trees have broken trunks. Others have been uprooted and left scattered across the ground, their roots exposed.
The 49-year-old farmer says the damage has impacted his livelihood and sense of security.
Across the occupied West Bank, Palestinians have reported an increase in settler attacks, including physical assaults, property damage and threats against residents and their land.
For Palestinians living near settlements, attacks can take place on roads, farms and outside their homes. Residents say Israeli soldiers are sometimes present during attacks, while accountability for settlers remains limited.
Khaled says he now feels tense whenever he sees settlers near his property.
“Last week, they walked on my broken hand and told me to leave,” he tells TRT World.
Khaled says he was working on his land when a group of settlers entered his property. They damaged his olive trees and crops, he says.
When he tried to stop them, they grabbed him.
“They tied my hands and legs and dragged me across the ground,” he says.
Khaled says the rough ground tore his skin, and the settlers threatened to kill him if he did not leave his land.
Israeli soldiers were nearby, according to Khaled.
“They were around the area,” he says. “But they were there to protect the settlers.”
The attack severely injured his right hand. Khaled says the settlers struck it repeatedly and stepped on it.
“Someone walked on my hand while it was forcefully held on the ground,” he says.
“The bone was crushed. Until now, I cannot perform my work as I used to.”
The injury has also affected his income.
At night, Khaled sleeps outside among his olive trees. He says settlers have threatened to burn his house and his land.
“There are people who came at night carrying flashlights,” he says.
The darkness that once brought silence now brings footsteps.
“I will not leave my land, no matter what happens,” Khaled says. “This land was inherited from my grandfather. He told me never to abandon it.”
Khaled's experience reflects what Palestinian officials describe as a broader shift in the occupied West Bank.
Around 750,000 illegal settlers live in 156 settlements and 360 settlement outposts across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian figures.
Speaking in Ramallah on Monday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin said settler violence is no longer simply a by-product of settlement expansion but has become one of its principal tools.
She described violence and settlement expansion as "two complementary pillars of Israel's illegal colonial project", arguing that attacks are increasingly used to seize Palestinian land, displace communities and alter the demographic reality on the ground.
Shahin rejected attempts to portray settler attacks as isolated acts by a small number of extremists, saying their scale, organisation and political backing point to a systematic pattern.
"Colonist violence has become a means of seizing Palestinian land, while colonist terrorism has evolved into a tool for systematic demographic change," she said.
Never reached the hospital
Five months ago, Mohammed Taweel was driving his pregnant wife from Far'ata, a Palestinian village near Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, to a hospital in the city. The couple were preparing to welcome their first child.
“This is the child that we have always dreamed of having,” Mohammed tells TRT World.
But before they reached the hospital, five armed settlers stopped their vehicle.
“They told me to turn back.”
Mohammed tried explaining that his wife needed urgent medical care.
“They did not listen.”
He says settlers smashed the car windows with the backs of their weapons and stones, sending shattered glass across the vehicle and injuring both him and his wife.
“My wife kept crying and screaming during the entire time we were stopped,” he says.
“She told me: ‘It looks like we will die before we see our son.’”
For more than 40 minutes, Mohammed pleaded with them to let his family continue.
He contacted Palestinian officials but remained stranded.
“I was standing there watching my wife in front of me, pregnant, unable to help her,” he says.
Eventually he took an almost deserted side road and reached the hospital after nightfall. By then, it was too late to prevent complications.
“The fluid around the baby had broken inside the car,” Mohammed says.
Mohammed says the prolonged delay deprived the baby of oxygen, leaving him with brain damage and a mental disability.
“My son did not choose any of this,” he says.
“He will carry the consequences of that night for the rest of his life.”
For Mohammed, the attack permanently changed how he viewed daily life.
“It was about feeling that your life and your family’s life can be controlled by someone who decides whether you continue or not.”
He says attacks have become increasingly unpredictable.
“They appear on roads, enter villages and stop people from reaching their work, hospitals or schools.
“How can anyone live like this?”
Presenting official figures on Monday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Shahin said that 11,074 violations by Israeli forces and settlers were documented across the occupied Palestinian territory in the first half of 2026, of which 3,488 were attributed to settlers.
The figures show that at least 86 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank during that period, including 21 killed directly by settlers.
They also recorded the displacement of 26 Bedouin communities and the establishment of 42 new settlement outposts, most of them pastoral.
For Saeed Al-Najjar, settler violence has reshaped his children's future.
In Osarin, south of Nablus, the 46-year-old construction worker remembers the day his 12-year-old son Jad left for school but returned only minutes later.
His hands were shaking. His school uniform was torn, and cuts marked his mouth and nose.
“He came back after only 15 minutes,” Saeed tells TRT World.
“He could barely speak. His eyes were full of tears.”
Encouraging settlement expansion
Saeed says settlers stopped Jad on the road, searched him, beat him and that one of them attempted to touch him inappropriately.
Afterwards, Jad stopped talking about school. Instead, he asked to work with his father.
“He decided to leave education even though he was one of the best students,” Saeed says.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 4,000 settler-related incidents were recorded between 2023 and 2025, among the highest levels since the agency began monitoring.
The UN has also documented the killing of Palestinians by Israeli settlers during the same period.
The rise in violence has coincided with increasingly supportive rhetoric from senior Israeli officials.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has repeatedly encouraged settlement expansion, telling settlers to "go to the hilltops and occupy them. We love you."
Shahin said the figures also recorded the seizure of 4,379 dunums of Palestinian land during the first half of 2026, while Israeli authorities advanced 113 settlement master plans—71 in the occupied West Bank and 42 in occupied East Jerusalem.
During the same period, the Israeli military carried out 341 demolitions, destroying 740 structures.
She added that 45 mosques in the occupied West Bank were targeted, including five that were burned and five that were demolished or partially destroyed.
According to the official data, 45,195 trees were uprooted or damaged by Israeli forces or settlers over the same period.
Shahin said the sharp rise in settler violence has made it increasingly difficult for Palestinians to remain on their land, pointing to the loss of livelihoods and security, the psychological toll on children and families, and the growing instability facing Palestinian communities.
Saeed’s concern extends beyond Jad.
“I am not only worried about my son,” he says. “I have four children. I do not know how to protect them all,” he tells TRT World.
“My children have the right to learn, but I cannot guarantee their safety.”
