Villages stormed and bulldozed, hundreds terrorised, dozens arrested
The systematic campaign of settler violence that has displaced entire Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley continues, violating international law. Since October 2023, the Israeli military has accelerated demolition operations.
The bedouin communities who lived there represent a double displacement – they are descendants of refugees forced out of the Naqab, or Negev, in what is now Israel, in 1948. Meanwhile Israeli military operations continue to demolish Palestinian homes under various pretexts.
All 371 settlements with a population of 738,000 settlers in the West Bank are illegal. The latest victims of escalating settler aggression are around 135 families from Ras Ein al Auja in January 2026. Residents of neighbouring Mu’arrajat fled in July, leaving the once-thriving area deserted.
On February 5, forces destroyed homes in Beit Awa southwest of Hebron, claiming a security risk, despite the area’s building permits being controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Israeli authorities proceed with demolitions. Just days later, a three-storey house in Tarqumiya was demolished, displacing three Palestinian families, including children and elderly. The demolition was justified as an ‘unpermitted structure’.
The Palestinian National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlement has highlighted an increase in Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank. Human rights organisations warn that the combination of settler violence with military demolition points to a coordinated strategy to alter the demographic makeup of the Occupied Territories.
On February 8, Israel’s security cabinet approved a series of measures set to deepen Israeli control over the occupied West Bank. The measures, announced by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz, include the removal of old regulations barring Jewish citizens from purchasing land in the West Bank, according to a joint statement by the two ministers.
Smotrich said the move aimed at ‘deepening our roots in all regions of the Land of Israel and burying the idea of a Palestinian state’. The West Bank is well on the way to full Israeli control.
