A new investigative report from Haaretz exposes a shocking escalation of settler and military-backed violence across the occupied West Bank — a campaign marked by organized lynch mobs, arson attacks, and the slaughtering of Palestinian livestock, described by local witnesses as “terror under the guise of security.”
The report, titled “Lynch Mobs, Arson, Slaughtered Animals: The West Bank Faces Unprecedented Israeli Violence,” catalogs a wave of brutality unleashed by armed settler militias over the past months, often operating with protection or open collaboration from Israeli soldiers. The evidence paints a grim picture of systemic state-sanctioned aggression and near-total impunity for the perpetrators.
A Campaign of Terror Across the Hills
According to eyewitnesses cited by Haaretz, coordinated settler groups have attacked dozens of Palestinian villages, burning homes, destroying crops, and setting herds ablaze. Livestock — a lifeline for many rural families — has been massacred in acts of intimidation designed to drive Palestinians from their land.
Residents recounted scenes of coordinated terror. “They came after midnight with rifles and masks,” one witness said. “They torched the fields, shot the sheep, and beat anyone who tried to stop them.”
The report highlights that these raids have intensified in scope and brutality since early summer. With Israeli military forces stationed mere kilometers away, settlement militias have acted freely — sometimes escorted by soldiers, according to the testimonies.
Human Rights Monitors Sound Alarm
Israeli rights groups, including Yesh Din and B’Tselem, confirmed that violent settler incursions have dramatically risen since the Gaza war’s escalation. In recent weeks, entire Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills and northern Jordan Valley were reportedly forced to flee following repeated armed assaults.
Yesh Din’s monitoring team described the situation as “a campaign of terror being carried out under state protection.” Footage and testimonies published through Haaretz indicate Israeli forces not only failed to intervene but, in several cases, actively shielded settlers from consequences.
“The army now behaves as a protective arm of the settlers,” one source told Haaretz. “Every complaint filed by a farmer or herder ends up buried — or worse, punished.”
Independent footage shared by journalist Jasper Nathaniel on X reinforces those accounts. His video, filmed near one of the recently attacked villages, shows soldiers standing by as masked settlers torch fields and chase fleeing residents — evidence, he wrote, of “open collaboration between military units and armed settlers.”
Hellbound and Down 