A violent weekend in the West Bank as settlers attack Palestinians in multiple incidents

Matan Golan  reports in Haaretz on 20 September 2026:

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians in a series of incidents across the West Bank over the weekend, including a fourth attack this week on the northern village of Burqa, where settlers have established a new outpost.  According to local reports, settlers beat an elderly Palestinian man and sprayed him with pepper spray, and he required medical treatment. Photos and videos from the scene show masked settlers throwing stones at homes in the village.

A subsequent attempt to set fire to a residential home and the torching of a nearby waste facility were also reported. According to a local report, the settlers attacked the village from three different directions.

Also on Saturday, settlers reportedly damaged the water pipe supplying al-Daqiqa in the southern Hebron Hills, on which hundreds of residents rely. Settlers also reportedly damaged agricultural infrastructure in Naqura and Beit Furik.

On Friday evening, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that an 18-year-old woman from the town of Akraba, south of Nablus, was injured by shrapnel from settler gunfire in the town. West Bank district police said its forces, along with forensic investigators, arrived at the scene accompanied by Israeli troops to collect findings and evidence, and that it had opened an investigation.

Earlier that day, a masked settler was documented entering Khirbet al-Markaz in the southern Hebron Hills and striking a Palestinian woman with a club near her home. Police said an investigation had been opened and that IDF troops and police officers who arrived at the scene could not locate the suspect.

Settlers also threw stones at a Palestinian vehicle in the Jiftlik area of the Jordan Valley, injuring three young people. According to the Palestinian news agency, in another stone-throwing incident targeting vehicles that same day, settlers lightly injured five Palestinians at the entrance to the village of Yabrud.

Israeli police also announced Friday that they had opened an investigation following a report of gunfire by Palestinians at vehicles belonging to Israeli settlers, while they were inside them, outside the Metzudat David farm outpost.

The farm is located on land belonging to the village of al-Mughayyir, which settlers have repeatedly entered with flocks of sheep for many months. In recent weeks, the frequency and severity of incidents have surged, with several Palestinians being killed by IDF fire following settler raids into residents’ homes.

Following the incident, a widespread IDF raid of the village and the use of crowd-dispersal measures were reported. IDF forces remained in the village Saturday morning, while armed settlers were documented grazing sheep near homes on the outskirts of the village while the troops were in the area.  According to a Palestinian report, settlers fired at residential homes in the village, with no casualties reported.

In the afternoon, security forces blocked the village’s only entrance, while settlers were filmed continuing to graze livestock near the entrance. In the evening, settlers were reported to have attacked an ambulance on the outskirts of al-Mughayyir, while masked settlers began approaching the nearby village of Abu Falah before an IDF force arrived at the scene.

Settlers were also reported to have entered Ramallah Park Friday to intimidate passersby. The park is located along Wallerstein Road, which was closed to Israeli traffic following the second Intifada – a major 2000 violent uprising against Israel – and runs partly through areas A and B.  Recently, settlers have begun campaigning for the IDF to reopen the road to Israeli traffic.

On Thursday evening, settlers attacked families living on the outskirts of the village of Taybeh in the Ramallah area. Rabbi and left-wing activist Arik Ascherman sustained injuries to the face during the attack, and had his camera stolen. The activists also said that despite their calls to police, officers were slow to arrive.

According to the activists, settler attacks on Palestinian residential compounds in the area have become more severe over the past week, after residents had been subjected to daily harassment for multiple weeks.

Additional activists were attacked in the same area Wednesday. One of them told Haaretz that “our friends were at one of the families’ homes and they called to report that there was a ‘rain of stones’ on them.” According to her testimony, the activists again called the police, but officers did not arrive. She said the attackers assaulted them before they could even reach the family’s home.

“They kicked me as hard as they could. My legs hurt, my muscles ache, I’ve never been beaten like that.” According to her testimony, the attack lasted for several minutes. “They went from one to another; we didn’t react, didn’t fight back, just asked them to stop, and they didn’t stop.”

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