378 incidents of settler violence in West Bank over 40 days of Iran war, left-wing group reports

During the recent 40 days of hostilities with Iran, there were 378 incidents of extremist settler violence against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank, the Yesh Din organization reports.

These attacks were staged in 148 Palestinian communities and dwellings across the territory, says Yesh Din, which opposes the settlement movement and monitors settler violence.

Eight Palestinians were shot and killed, and 200 were injured by extremist settlers during the period of the Iran war, the group adds.

“Settler violence could be stopped if only there was a real desire on the part of the government and state authorities, but Israel has no motivation to change the situation,” Yesh Din says of the data.

“On the contrary, Israel’s policy encourages criminal settlers and leads to the spread of violent farming outposts across the entire West Bank,” it adds in reference to the tactics of settler activists to establish agricultural settlement outposts designed to displace rural Palestinians from their homes.

“The map of Palestinian communities where settler violence has occurred clearly illustrates the goal of state-backed violence: expelling Palestinians from their lands and pushing them into small, crowded enclaves.”

After three weeks of intense violence by settler radicals against Palestinian civilians, the IDF diverted a battalion that had been slated to enter Lebanon to the West Bank on March 22 in an effort to quell the extremist violence.

Nevertheless, extremists carried out over 120 further incidents of settler violence from that date until the end of the war, according to Yesh Din’s data.

The organization’s figures are based on cross-referenced public statements and reports on settler violence from different sources.