UN rights office warns of worsening settler violence in West Bank

GENEVA, July 29 - The U.N. human rights office on Wednesday warned of worsening violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, and urged international action against the killing of Palestinians as well as the creation of settlements, which it said had reached an all-time high.

According to United Nations figures, 18 Palestinians have been killed in incidents linked to settler attacks so far this year, compared with 17 in the whole of 2025. The Palestinian Authority says at least 20 Palestinians have been killed by settlers since the start of the year.

Last Friday, four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers — one of whom acted as a security coordinator for a nearby Israeli settlement — were killed when a crowd of Israeli settlers, some armed, approached the Palestinian village of Tal, southwest of Nablus.

"Settlers and Israeli security forces, often acting together, have attacked local communities, assaulting families, destroying and confiscating property, and burning mosques," Ravina Shamdasani, the spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.

The Israeli government and military did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

The U.N. human rights office said settler violence and actions tantamount to ongoing annexation of Palestinian territory in the West Bank had worsened in the two years since a ruling at the International Court of Justice in July 2024 that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory and settlements there were illegal and should be withdrawn. Israel at the time rejected the finding as "fundamentally wrong" and one-sided.

Violence in the West Bank has surged since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, with the U.N., rights groups and Palestinian officials reporting a sharp rise in settler attacks.

Earlier in July, Israel's security cabinet approved 1.3 billion shekels ($434 million) to establish 34 new settlements in the West Bank, territory that Israel captured in a 1967 war and which Palestinians seek as the core of a future state.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who advocates for the full annexation of the West Bank, called the move "historic". U.N. bodies, Palestinians and most countries view the settlements as illegal under international conventions — a stance disputed by Israel — and a major obstacle to peace.

Israel cites biblical and historical ties to the land, which it argues is disputed territory, where Jews have lived for thousands of years.

About 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. REUTERS