Unprecedented escalation... Settler violations reach their highest levels in 20 years in the West Bank.

Arab Sea Newspaper - Special

**Arab Gulf_Reports:** **Settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have turned into an escalating daily scene, especially with the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023.** **A United Nations report indicated that settlers carried out 264 attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank last October, the highest monthly toll in nearly 20 years.** **Organized Crimes** **The coordinator of the Popular Campaign to Resist the Wall and Settlement, Jamal Juma, said that what is happening in the West Bank in terms of attacks by settlers is not just violations, but organized crimes that constitute the spearhead of the project to annex the West Bank.** **Juma explained that these groups, which carry out their operations under the auspices of the Supreme Council of Settlements and with direct support from the Israeli government and settlement associations, seek to forcibly displace Palestinians from their lands and confine them to narrow cantons.** **He pointed out that what the Israeli Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, described as "decisive action in the West Bank" has been implemented in practice since 2023, through organized displacement operations that included more than 75 Bedouin communities, enabling Israel to control about 15% of the area of the West Bank - equivalent to approximately 900 km², which is twice the area of the Gaza Strip.** **Juma confirmed that these crimes coincide with the intensification of attacks on villages, especially in the axis extending between Ramallah and Nablus, within the framework of expanding settlement control and creating new demographic realities.** **On the economic level, he pointed out that 80% of livestock production in the West Bank is threatened with collapse due to Israeli measures, in addition to the almost complete control over water sources and the large settlement expansion in the Jordan Valley region, of which Israel controls 90%.** **Demographic Realities** **Mamoun Abu Amer, a specialist in Israeli affairs, said that settler attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank are witnessing an unprecedented escalation, within the framework of a clear Israeli policy aimed at implementing an expansionist settlement project concentrated in what it calls (Judea and Samaria).** **He added that this project is based on annexing the land without its inhabitants, which explains the increasing policies of forced and systematic displacement, through killing, harassment, and siege, in preparation for emptying large areas of the West Bank and imposing new demographic realities that serve the Israeli plan.** **Abu Amer explained that Israel exploited the war on Gaza during the past two years to carry out large-scale displacement operations in the West Bank, amid the world's preoccupation, as large areas of land were seized and their residents forcibly expelled.** **He added that after the cessation of the war in Gaza, the picture became clearer in the West Bank, and settler attacks became more violent, amid escalating hatred against Palestinians after October 7, and with direct government support.** **He confirmed that these attacks are carried out under an official political and security cover, led by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and with the support of ministers such as Bezalel Smotrich, with the aim of paving the way for the annexation of the West Bank, especially the areas classified as (B), which include only about 200,000 Palestinians, which encourages Israel to proceed with the annexation project after displacement.**