Dozens of Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank are at risk of being erased as escalating attacks by Israeli settlers and the rapid expansion of Israeli settlements drive forced displacement, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Thursday.
The US-based rights group accused Israeli authorities of arming, funding and shielding settlers from accountability. It called for targeted sanctions, a suspension of weapons transfers to Israel and a trade ban with illegal settlements.
What the report documented
Human Rights Watch investigated settler attacks in seven Palestinian communities in April and May: Al-Mughayyir, Mikhmas and Taybeh in Ramallah governorate; Jalud and Qaryut in Nablus governorate; and Khirbet Hamsa and Muarrajat East in the Jordan Valley.
The report described killings, including of children, assaults, sexual violence, physical and mental abuse, arbitrary detention, arson, property demolitions and theft among the reported abuses. It said armed settlers sometimes acted alongside Israeli military units, or soldiers stood by without intervening during raids on Palestinian residents and property.
Related coverage: Tender advances Israel’s E1 settlement project in the West Bank.
Displacement has accelerated
Human Rights Watch said settler violence had grown since the current Israeli government took office in December 2022, with attacks spiking during the first two months of the United States and Israel’s war on Iran.
Research by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs found that more Palestinians were forcibly displaced by settler attacks, demolitions and evictions in the first four months of this year than during all of 2025. Since January 2023, 107 communities comprising 5,900 Palestinians had been completely or partially displaced because of settler violence, according to the UN research cited in the report.
The Israeli military also expelled another 32,000 Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank since January 2025, the report said, effectively emptying the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps.
More context: What Israel’s West Bank policing plan would change.
What Human Rights Watch is asking governments to do
The rights group said the attacks and the absence of state protection had created a coercive environment in which many Palestinians said they had no choice but to leave their homes.
Its recommendations include targeted sanctions against people implicated in ongoing abuses, suspending weapons transfers to Israel, banning trade with illegal settlements and considering the suspension of preferential trade agreements with Israel.
Also read: Israeli minister urges killing 30 to 40 Palestinians nightly in Gaza.
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