Israeli settler attacks shift focus to West Bank areas under direct Palestinian rule

Violent Israeli settler attacks in the two areas of the occupied West Bank under direct Palestinian rule have almost doubled since 2025, as settlers pursue a self-proclaimed “great settlement revolution” in the very heart of the territory earmarked for a Palestinian state.According to a report by the Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din, shared with the Guardian, data shows that almost two-thirds of incidents of settler violence so far in 2026 have taken place in the so-called Areas A and B – placed under Palestinian Authority governance in the 1995 Oslo accords.The report, The Next Frontier, Violence by Israeli Civilians in Areas A and B, describes the “rapid shift” in “violence and pressure exerted by the government, military and settlers on Palestinians … from Area C into Areas B and even A”.A graffito reading ‘Greater Israel’ and several Stars of David are painted on Palestinian property in the Jordan valley near the West Bank city of Tubas on 14 August 2026. Photograph: Atef Safadi/EPAWhile all three designated administrative areas on the West Bank were intended under the Oslo peace deal to encompass the shape of a future Palestinian state, successive Israeli governments, driven by the settler movement, have pursued a long-term policy of undermining Palestinian claims.In Area C, accounting for 60% of the West Bank, Israel was initially given what was supposed to be temporary responsibility for all civil and security affairs pending a final status agreement for a Palestinian state. This arrangement was exploited for settlement. All government-approved Israeli settlements (regarded as illegal under international law) are located in Area C, as are the main roads and traffic arteries of the West Bank.In Area A, which makes up about 18% of the West Bank and includes the major Palestinian cities, the Palestinian Authority became responsible for civil affairs and internal security. In Area B (22%), which includes the built-up areas in Palestinian rural spaces, the PA became responsible for civil affairs and public order.Since 2024, Israel’s settlement movement has explicitly and violently expanded its efforts by establishing new farming “outposts” in Areas A and B. Settler leaders have said openly that these are designed to “gain a foothold” in “very strategic” Palestinian locations. As the report says: “Most Palestinian daily life occurs in these areas.”According to the report’s analysis, the percentage of violent West Bank incidents taking place in Area B stands at 55% so far this year, compared with 25% last year, while attacks in Area C declined in the same period from 67% to 37% of the overall figure, indicating a deliberate change in strategy.“As settler and state violence against Palestinian communities in Area C has intensified in recent years, Palestinians have been forcibly pushed into Areas A and B, making these areas increasingly critical for maintaining safety and a semblance of normal everyday life,” said Yesh Din, which has been documenting settler violence for more than two decades.A map posted earlier this summer in the WhatsApp group of the Hilltop Foundation, an organisation that supplies equipment, support and funding for the establishment of Israeli outposts in the West Bank, showed 16 outposts between the major Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Nablus alone. The map was accompanied by text boasting of “the great settlement revolution under way in the Oslo areas” and pledging the foundation’s continuing support for the establishment of outposts in Area B.The Yesh Din report said that “the successful establishment of so many outposts in obvious violation of Israeli law, demonstrates that Israel is deliberately choosing not to effectively address the issue and that the settlers’ openly declared goals align with government policy”.“Senior ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich [who have both called for the cancelling of the Oslo accords] openly speak of their ambition to gain control of Area B and abolish the division created under the Oslo accords.”There is increasing international concern over the escalating pace of settler violence on the West Bank. Sanctions have been placed in the US and Europe on settlers and pro-settler figures, including Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister.Announcing France’s sanctions against Ben-Gvir on Wednesday, the French foreign, minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said what was happening on the West Bank was “ utterly disgraceful and should fill us all with revulsion”.According to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as of 20 July, 18 Palestinians had died during attacks involving settlers, of whom 12 were killed by settlers and three by Israeli forces. Responsibility for the remaining three deaths was disputed, OCHA said.According to the UN agency, there were about 190 attacks a month in the first four months of 2026, putting the West Bank on a trajectory to reach more than 2,000 attacks by the end of this year.Yesh Din concludes: “This Israeli strategy, implemented in part through the expansion of outposts and the settler violence launched from them into new areas, pushes Palestinian residents into the centres of towns and villages and empties surrounding areas of Palestinian presence.“In doing so, it advances Israel toward the realisation of a policy, already reflected in ministers’ public statements, that seeks to annex as much West Bank territory as possible with as few Palestinians as possible living there.“The path to this goal is paved with systematic, organised criminality, backed and supported by state institutions, revealing a clear intent: to make the area Palestinian free, in other words, to carry out ethnic cleansing.”The Israeli military has been approached for comment.