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Israel Escalates West Bank Violence: 1,000 Palestinians Killed Since Oct 7
While Gaza faces genocide, Israel has killed 1,000+ Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since Oct 7. Settler violence, land theft, and military raids continue with impunity.
ND
by News Desk
2025-07-01
Israel Escalates West Bank Violence: 1,000 Palestinians Killed Since Oct 7

As global attention remains fixed on Israel's relentless assault on Gaza, a parallel but often overshadowed crisis is unfolding in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces and settlers have killed over 1,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023.

The most recent fatality was Samer Bassam al-Zagharneh, a young Palestinian shot dead by Israeli forces near the separation barrier on July 1, according to the Wafa news agency. The barrier, built in 2002, cuts through Palestinian communities and agricultural lands, serving as both a symbol and a tool of Israel’s occupation.

Rights groups, researchers, and Palestinian residents report a sharp surge in settler-led violence, backed by Israeli forces. Settlers, often armed and emboldened, carry out attacks on Palestinian towns, burn homes, loot property, and displace entire communities—particularly in Area C, which remains under full Israeli control.

The Israeli army, meanwhile, has intensified its raids in refugee camps across the West Bank, including Jenin, Tulkarem, Nur Shams, Far’a, and Nablus. These operations frequently involve sieges, home demolitions, and airstrikes, tactics eerily similar to those employed in Gaza.

In 2024 alone, Israel confiscated more Palestinian land than in the past 20 years combined, according to Israeli watchdog Peace Now. The push is led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who now oversees a powerful new “Settlements Administration.” Smotrich has approved new outposts—illegal even under Israeli law—and expanded settlement infrastructure across the West Bank, effectively advancing de facto annexation in violation of international law.

Settler violence is escalating rapidly:

·       From October 2023 to December 2024, there were 1,800+ settler attacks, according to Tech for Palestine.

·       In just the first half of 2025, at least 414 more attacks were recorded.

One of the most brutal incidents occurred on June 25, when around 100 armed settlers attacked the village of Kfar Malik, killing three Palestinians and attempting to burn homes to the ground. Similar violence was reported in Taybeh, where settlers torched a Palestinian car, as documented by B’Tselem.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has warned that the Israeli army is attempting to evict 12 communities in Masafer Yatta, under the pretext of declaring it a military zone—an excuse used for decades to remove Palestinians from their ancestral lands.

Many Palestinians now live in a state of constant fear, unprotected from either the settlers or the Israeli military. With hundreds of thousands displaced and dozens of communities under siege, the violence in the West Bank underscores what rights organizations have long described as systematic ethnic cleansing.

As one activist put it, “This is not security—it’s state-backed settler terrorism.”

 
Tagged:

freepalestine

IsraelWarCrimes

WestBankUnderAttack

SettlerViolence
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