Arms handout for illegal settlers
Israel’s Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir in January approved the issue of gun licences to Israelis in 18 more illegal settlements in the West Bank where Israelis have access to military grade weapons and drones. He said the move was to enhance self-defence and increase security’.
Israel launched a wide-scale armament programme at the start of its attack on the Gaza Strips. In a statement, Ben-Gvir said that more than 240,000 Israelis have received gun permits since the expansion of the policy, compared with about 8,000 permits issued annually in previous years.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 1,800 settler attacks against Palestinians – about five per day – were documented in 2025
West Bank terror drives out villagers
The village of Yanoun in the northern West Bank is now empty of Palestinians. It is among 45 villages whose inhabitants have been expelled since October 2023. Israeli settlers are stepping up their attacks and seizing more land.
Yanoun’s troubles became critical in the late 1990s when an illegal Israeli settlement set up its first outpost overlooking the village. Violent masked settlers repeatedly invaded Yanoun, killing sheep, uprooting olive trees and preventing the villagers from moving around freely.
Things got so bad that in 2002 the whole population was chased out. Community leader Rashid Murrar told journalist Majad Jawad: ‘Life became unbearable. They came with dogs and guns. They beat residents.’
The villagers only came back over a year later when an Israeli peace group accompanied them and stayed there 24/7.
Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) took over that role, maintaining a protective presence for nearly 20 years so the villagers were never alone with settlers.
Murrar told British accompanier Jan Sutch Pickard that his grandfather had grazed his large flocks right down into the Jordan Valley but his father could not because it became a closed military zone. Murrar’s flocks needed to be even smaller and could only graze along the roadside. Now he cannot even do that.
EAPPI spokesperson Iskandar Majlaton said: For nearly two decades, EAPPI stood alongside the people of Yanoun, documenting their suffering and offering protective presence as they resisted systematic settler violence. ‘We grieve deeply for those we once walked with, now displaced and homeless.’
But the story is not over. Murrar expressed the famous Palestinian sumud – steadfastness. ‘We were forced to leave once, then we returned. Now I live in an old house that I consider temporary. My wife lives far away. We will reunite very soon.’
