IDF: WB settler attacks against Palestinians surge, police and Shin Bet don’t act amid political pressure

A vehicle set on fire by settlers near Ramallah in October 2025

Yaniv Kubovich reports in Haaretz on 11 November 2025:

Data from Israel’s security establishment shows that settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have increased in 2025, with the IDF saying that Israel Police and the Shin Bet security service have failed to act due to pressure from government ministers and lawmakers.

The IDF documented 704 incidents of settler attacks by October, compared with 675 in all of 2024. This averages about 70 incidents per month in 2025, up from 56 per month last year, which was already an increase over previous years.

Israeli security officials attribute the trend to the political backing settlers receive from government ministers, Knesset members and prominent religious leaders in the national-religious political camp.

The IDF says that it does not know whether indictments have been issued in connection with this year’s incidents. IDF chief Eyal Zamir has approached the issue cautiously, even in cases where security forces themselves have been attacked.

The IDF maintains that law enforcement falls to the Israel Police and the Shin Bet, which it claims have deliberately failed to address the issue due to political pressure. Even when soldiers or settlers in military uniform are documented participating in attacks, the IDF typically does not open investigations.

Soldiers involved in monitoring settler violence told Haaretz that they are often dispatched only after incidents end and are instructed to disperse those involved, without detaining settlers who attacked.

The annual olive harvest has long been a sensitive period, marked by attacks on Palestinian farmers and volunteers by Jewish extremists. During this year’s harvest, which began on October 19, 50 assaults on Palestinians were recorded in the first three weeks alone, compared with 57 in October 2024. Most attacks occurred in the Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron areas, where illegal Israeli outposts have been converted into “agricultural farms” that serve as bases for extremist activity.

Overall, there were 74 settler attacks in October 2025 – a nearly 30-percent increase from the 57 recorded last year. Since January, 174 Palestinians have been injured in such attacks, up from 155 in 2024.

A United Nations report released Saturday found that settler violence in the West Bank reached its highest level since the UN began tracking it in 2006. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 264 incidents were recorded in October – an average of more than eight attacks per day. The UN has documented a total of 1,485 settler assaults this year.

UN figures are significantly higher than those of the IDF. The army attributes the discrepancy to factors such as counting clashes between the army and Palestinians not directly related to settlers, double-counting complaints and including unverified Palestinian reports. At the same time, the IDF acknowledges that many Palestinian victims of settler violence avoid filing complaints out of fear of retaliation.

According to IDF data, 986 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank during the Gaza war, mostly in military counter-terrorism operations, and 3,481 have been wounded, the majority in violent incidents and clashes.

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