Experts call rising Israeli settler attacks in West Bank ‘pogroms’

Radical Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank have intensified in recent weeks, with rights groups and experts increasingly describing the violence as “pogroms”. The attacks, often carried out with the presence or support of Israeli forces, have targeted Palestinian homes, businesses and farmland across the territory. The latest escalation follows an attack by Jewish settlers from the Havat Gilad settlement on Palestinian homes near Tal, southwest of Nablus, in late July. Israeli forces also raided several towns, villages and refugee camps across the West Bank on Sunday and Monday, with reports of arrests, home searches and further settler attacks continuing to emerge. In the village of Qusra, three Palestinian families comprising 15 people, including two children, have faced a siege lasting 15 days. The case prompted a rare public condemnation from US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a strong supporter of Israel and its West Bank settlements. The radical Israeli government is also advancing plans for the E1 settlement expansion near Jerusalem. Human rights organisations have warned that the project could effectively divide the West Bank in two, further restricting Palestinian movement and undermining prospects for a future Palestinian state. UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese has described the attacks as “pogroms against defenceless civilians”. What is happening in West Bank? Attacks by radical Israeli settlers on Palestinians have occurred for decades as illegal Israeli settlements have expanded across the occupied territory, but rights groups say the violence has become more frequent and severe since the 2023 Gaza assault. Israeli settlements and outposts in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law. According to the Palestinian Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, about 780, 000 Israeli settlers now live across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem in 192 settlements and 400 outposts. Radical Jewish settlers have established outposts near Palestinian communities from which they have carried out harassment and attacks, including killing or stealing livestock, cutting off water and electricity supplies and damaging property. In some cases, militant settlers have recently besieged individual Palestinian homes, cutting off water and other essential supplies while damaging orchards and livestock. The pattern has involved settlers establishing tents near Palestinian homes and then restricting access to the families living there. Israeli soldiers have subsequently arrived, sometimes removing or arresting Palestinian residents or saying they are acting to protect them. In Qusra, the three besieged families were forced to stay together in one home. Israeli forces have occupied another of the homes as a military post and thrown furniture and belongings out of its windows. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recorded more than 1, 330 settler-related attacks against Palestinians between January and late July, an average of about six attacks a day and the fastest rate since systematic monitoring began two decades ago. A UN-appointed commission of inquiry has also found that Israeli authorities repeatedly failed to prevent foreseeable settler attacks and, in some cases, directly enabled them through military protection as well as weapons and funding. OCHA has said settler violence, demolitions and evictions displaced more Palestinians in the first four months of this year than throughout all of 2025. Since January 2023, 107 communities comprising about 5, 900 Palestinians have been completely or partially displaced because of settler violence, according to OCHA. The agency also reported that Israeli forces had expelled another 32, 000 Palestinians from their homes since January 2025, effectively emptying the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps. What does ‘pogrom’ mean? The term “pogrom” has no established legal definition under international law, unlike terms such as genocide and crimes against humanity. Dictionaries generally describe a pogrom as organised violence or mass killing targeting people because of their race or religion. Do West Bank attacks fit the term? Francesca Albanese is not the only figure to use the term. Israeli officials have also previously described settler attacks as pogroms. In February 2023, hundreds of militant Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian town of Huwara and surrounding communities. A Palestinian was killed, hundreds were injured, and homes, businesses and vehicles were set on fire. The Israeli military’s then commander in the West Bank, Yehuda Fuchs, described the violence as a “pogrom”. The US State Department also recorded the attack using the term. Israeli-Palestinian human rights organisation B’Tselem has likewise described settler attacks in the West Bank as pogroms, arguing that the violence has contributed to the displacement of Palestinian communities. Yair Dvir, a spokesperson for B’Tselem, said settler violence had become “more violent” and “more systematic” and was part of what he described as a state mechanism intended to ethnically cleanse parts of the West Bank. He said the government funds and arms militant settlers while Israeli forces either stand by or participate in attacks. The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention has also described attacks on the Palestinian village of al-Mughayyir as pogroms. The organisation said hundreds of armed settlers attacked residents and burned buildings and vehicles while soldiers stood by. Raheel Dhattiwala, an Indian scholar specialising in collective violence, said the attacks matched the characteristics of a pogrom because they involved systematic targeting of one civilian population by another with state approval. “West Bank attacks fit the characteristics of a pogrom — systematic targeting of one civilian group by another with state approval, ” Dhattiwala said. She added that while the terminology could be debated, describing the violence as systematic attacks by occupiers against an occupied population with government approval was accurate.

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