‘They Hit First, Then Burn’: Settlers Wage Daily War on Palestinian Villages

July 25, 2025 Articles, Features
Armed Israeli settler accompanied by soldiers threatens Palestinian farmers near a-Tuwani, South Hebron Hills. (Photo: Basel al-’Adrah, via Wikimedia Commons)

By Fayha Shalash – Ramallah

With political cover from Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, settler militias are driving Palestinians from their lands through violence, arson, and terror.

Ibrahim al-Khawaja was startled when an illegal Israeli Jewish settler hit him on the head with a heavy iron pipe while attacking his home and assaulting his family, as part of an organized policy to seize new Palestinian land.

This scene has become a daily occurrence in the occupied West Bank, even repeated several times a day. Armed settler groups roam most of the villages and towns, assaulting whoever they want, stealing whatever they want, and doing whatever they want under the protection of the Israeli army.

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The attacks have reached unprecedented levels in light of the Israeli government’s ambitions to annex the West Bank before the end of 2025. These settler groups are supported financially, militarily, and politically by the extremist Israeli government.

Forced to Flee

Al-Khawaja, 22, heard screaming outside his home in the town of Ni’lin, west of Ramallah, last Saturday. A group of illegal Israeli Jewish settlers had stormed the area, cutting through the iron fence surrounding homes.

It wasn’t long before they arrived at his home and began assaulting him and his family, forcing them to leave immediately. Al-Khawaja tried to protect his family.

“Suddenly, I felt a strong blow to my head that almost made me lose consciousness,” he told The Palestine Chronicle. “It felt as if a large rock had fallen on my head. It turned out that one of the settlers had hit me from behind with a heavy iron pipe, causing a fractured skull and a deep wound.”

The scene went blurry after his attack, although al-Khawaja saw his family members fleeing the house in panic as the settlers began setting it on fire, causing significant material damage.

This scene has become a recurring pattern every Saturday. Settlers attack the outskirts of the town and attempt to evict several families from their homes in the area called Wadi Ni’lin; in order to take control and annex it to a settlement outpost they recently established on village lands.

“They shoot in the air to scare us. They throw stones at the windows of our homes, terrorize the children and women, and seek the help of the Israeli army to uproot us from this place,” al-Khawaja said.

This is not the first time he has been beaten by settlers near his home.

Since December 2023, they have been targeting this area, with residents being subjected to all manner of attacks to force them to leave their homes. Even the trees around the homes have been cut down several times, without any settler being held accountable for any attack.

Livestock a Target

In the Jordan Valley, east of the West Bank, illegal Israeli Jewish settlers are waging a war against everything: people, trees, existence, and even livestock, because they are the source of livelihood for Palestinian families and the reason for their presence on their land.

Last week, 117 sheep were slaughtered by settlers in the Bedouin community of Al-Mayta to force families to leave, in addition to other acts of beating, abuse, and vandalism of property.

These attacks have led to the displacement of 30 Bedouin communities from their residential areas since October 2023 and the seizure of their lands.

Hassan Malihat, director of the Al-Baidar Association for the Defense of Bedouins, told The Palestine Chronicle that the rate of settler attacks in the West Bank has increased significantly and unprecedentedly against Bedouin communities.

Colonial Agenda

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have exploited the Israeli government’s need for them to survive and imposed their racist colonial agenda.

The two extremist ministers have also been consistently inciting the de facto annexation of the West Bank. They have built dozens of illegal outposts and have intensified their land seizure and expulsion of Palestinians, especially in Area C, particularly the Jordan Valley, Malihat said.

“The most prominent attacks focused on the expulsion and forced eviction of Bedouin communities and their uprooting from their pastures, which were then occupied by extremist settler gangs,” he explained. “Their seizure of sheep and slaughter of many of them indicates the terrorist mentality that pervades these people, who are obsessed with Talmudic ideas.”

This incident is a dangerous precedent, demonstrating that settler militias target Palestinian livestock by killing them in a clear attempt to displace Bedouin communities. Malihat noted that the fate awaiting residents of the West Bank is unknown, given the escalating attacks.

Escalating Attacks

According to data from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, illegal Israeli Jewish settlers carried out 415 attacks in June alone, concentrated in the cities of Nablus (91 attacks), Ramallah (89 attacks), and Hebron (72 attacks).

Data showed that settlers carried out 356 acts of vandalism and theft of Palestinian property. Their attacks resulted in the uprooting of 1,068 trees, including 695 olive trees, in the cities of Hebron, Ramallah, Salfit, Tulkarm, and Nablus.

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Political analyst Firas Yaghi told The Palestine Chronicle that the escalation in attacks is part of a systematic plan by the settlers, facilitated by Smotrich’s control over the Civil Administration in the West Bank and his agenda for imposing Israeli control over the area.

What makes matters worse is that there is no official Palestinian institution to confront the settlers’ actions, and the number of religious Zionists in the Knesset has reached 42 members.

“They want to impose sovereignty over the West Bank before the end of the government’s term in 2026, and they are moving to confiscate and annex as much land as possible and build as many settlement units as possible,” Yaghi said.

Hundreds of millions have been allocated to infrastructure and roads for settlements, while the phenomenon of pastoral settlement has increased, devouring more than 10% of West Bank land.

“The Israeli government’s current policy is accelerating settlement expansion, control, and imposing a new fait accompli, with settlers initiating attacks and arson to confirm that the reality has changed,” Yaghi also stated.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

– Fayha’ Shalash is a Ramallah-based Palestinian journalist. She graduated from Birzeit University in 2008 and she has been working as a reporter and broadcaster ever since. Her articles appeared in several online publications. She contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.

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1 Comment

  1. How was someone able to get close enough to take that photo at the top?
    the settlers are scumbags. I hope they all die. Judaism is a mental illness, these people are proof.

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