UN says Israel displaced 36,000 Palestinians in the West Bank

The UN warns that the Israeli campaign of attacks, settlements and settler violence is causing mass displacement of Palestinians

The number of Palestinians forcibly expelled from their homes by Israel in the occupied West Bank increased by 25% between November 1, 2024 and October 31, 2025, according to a United Nations report released on Tuesday.

During this period, more than 36,000 Palestinians were displaced. The report recorded 1,732 incidents of violence by settlers that caused casualties or property destruction, an increase of almost 25% from 1,400 in the previous period.

The attacks included continued harassment, intimidation and destruction of Palestinian homes, farmland and livelihoods.

“Settler violence continued in a coordinated, strategic and largely unchallenged manner, with Israeli authorities playing a central role in directing, participating in or facilitating this conduct,” the report said, making it difficult to distinguish between state violence and settler violence.

Widespread and long-standing impunity is “facilitating and encouraging violence and harassment against Palestinians,” he added.

Much of the displacement occurred in the northern regions of the territory. Around 32,000 Palestinians were forced out of the refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarm, Nur Shams and Far’a during widespread Israeli military offensives.

“The displacement of more than 36,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank represented the mass expulsion of Palestinians on a scale never before seen, amounting to an illegal transfer prohibited by international humanitarian law,” the report said.

The violence peaked around olive harvest time in October, an economically crucial season for Palestinian farmers.

The report documented 42 settler attacks that injured 131 Palestinians, including 14 women and a boy, marking the highest number of casualties in a single month since records began in 2006.

Daily attacks by armed settlers, Israeli soldiers and “settler soldiers,” many of them armed and trained by the state, have turned the 2025 harvest into the worst in decades.

Separated families

In several communities, gender-based violence has led families to flee. Some attacks separated families, with women and children forced to leave, while men remained to try to protect land and property.

“The displacement in the occupied West Bank, which coincides with the extensive displacement of Palestinians in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli military, appears to indicate a concerted Israeli policy of mass forced transfer throughout the occupied territory, aimed at permanent displacement, which raises concerns of ethnic cleansing,” the report says.

The report also warned that Bedouin communities northeast of occupied East Jerusalem face an increasing risk of expulsion as Israeli occupation authorities move forward with new settlement plans. He also noted that the illegal transfer of protected populations constitutes a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention and can also be considered a crime against humanity.

Settlement expansion also accelerated dramatically. Israeli authorities have approved or approved 36,973 housing units in settlements in East Jerusalem and approximately 27,200 in other parts of the West Bank.

The period under review also saw the creation of 84 new settlements, in addition to the expansion into Area B, which is under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, in accordance with the Oslo Accords.

Since the start of the genocide in Gaza in October 2023, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 1,071 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the most recent UN data.

Originally published by Middle East Eye on 03/18/2026

But Elis Gjevori