Why Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in West Bank are pogroms
Al Jazeera explainer details how Israeli settler attacks in the occupied West Bank, frequently backed by Israeli forces, have escalated into organized violence that UN experts call pogroms.
Intelligence analysis by Llama
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese labels settler attacks in the occupied West Bank as "pogroms against defenceless civilians." The piece traces acceleration since October 7, 2023, the 15-day siege in Qusra, and Israel's E1 settlement push.
Some people who live in the West Bank are harming Palestinian families — burning their homes, cutting off their water, and forcing them to leave. The United Nations says this is happening six times every day, and a top UN official calls it a 'pogrom,' a word for organized violence against a group of people.
Analysis
Havat Gilad and the post-October 7 acceleration
The piece anchors its timeline to the Havat Gilad settlement, whose residents attacked Palestinian homes on the eastern edge of Tal, southwest of Nablus, roughly a month before publication. According to the article, attacks that had been commonplace for decades took on a new tempo after Israel launched its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, and have become "particularly violent and frequent over the past month." The settler population now numbers roughly 780,000 across 192 settlements and 400 outposts, with 71 percent coverage of Area C and 91 percent of the Jordan Valley, per the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) logged more than 1,330 settler-related attacks between January and late July 2026 — averaging six per day and the fastest pace since tracking began two decades ago.
Qusra's 15-day siege and Huckabee's rebuke
The explainer centers a specific, ongoing incident: a 15-day siege on three families comprising 15 people, including two children, in the West Bank village of Qusra. Settlers established a tent adjacent to a family home, cut off water and supplies, damaged orchards and livestock, and were joined by Israeli soldiers who arrested or "protected" Palestinians rather than removing the settlers. One of the houses was occupied as a military post, with furniture thrown from its windows, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. The piece notes that this standoff drew a rare public condemnation from US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, described in the article as "a staunch supporter of Israel and its West Bank settlements," underscoring how the violence has begun to strain even the most sympathetic voices in Washington.
The E1 plan and the severing question
The article situates the Qusra siege within a larger territorial agenda: Israel's push for the so-called E1 settlement close to Jerusalem, which human rights organizations warn would "effectively sever the West Bank in two." According to the UN-appointed commission of inquiry cited in the piece, Israeli authorities have repeatedly failed to prevent foreseeable settler attacks and in some cases have directly enabled them through army protection and the provision of weapons and funding. OCHA found that settler attacks, demolitions and evictions forcibly displaced more Palestinians in the first four months of 2026 than in the whole of 2025, and that 107 communities comprising 5,900 Palestinians had been completely or partially displaced since January 2023. Another 32,000 Palestinians have been expelled since January 2025, essentially emptying the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps, framing the violence as demographic engineering rather than sporadic unrest.
Key points
- UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has labelled Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as "pogroms against defenceless civilians."
- UN OCHA recorded more than 1,330 settler-related attacks between January and late July 2026, averaging six per day — the fastest pace in two decades of tracking.
- A 15-day siege on three families comprising 15 people, including two children, in the West Bank village of Qusra drew rare public condemnation from US Ambassador Mike Huckabee.
- Settler numbers have grown to roughly 780,000 across 192 settlements and 400 outposts, covering 71 percent of Area C and 91 percent of the Jordan Valley.
- Israel's planned E1 settlement near Jerusalem would, according to human rights organisations, sever the West Bank in two and further jeopardise the possibility of a Palestinian state.
- A UN-appointed commission of inquiry found that Israeli authorities have repeatedly failed to prevent foreseeable settler attacks and, in some cases, have directly enabled them through army protection, weapons and funding.
If the rare rebuke from US Ambassador Mike Huckabee signals a shift in Washington's tolerance for settler violence, it could create diplomatic pressure that constrains Israeli military complicity in home sieges like the one in Qusra. The article also notes that UN documentation of 1,330 attacks and the displacement of 5,900 Palestinians since January 2023 has produced an evidentiary base that human rights groups and the Albanese-led inquiry can leverage in international forums.
The explainer reports that OCHA found the first four months of 2026 displaced more Palestinians than all of 2025, and that 32,000 Palestinians have been expelled since January 2025 — a trajectory that, combined with the E1 settlement plan near Jerusalem, points to accelerated displacement and the effective dissolution of territorial contiguity for any future Palestinian state. The UN inquiry's finding that Israeli authorities "in some cases have directly enabled" attacks through army protection and weapons provision suggests the violence is structural, not aberrant.
