Under Fire and Displaced: Palestinian Women Endure Settler Attacks in the West Bank

NABLUS / PNN /

Settler attacks on Palestinians, their homes, and property in the occupied West Bank have sharply increased since 7 October 2023. Organised actions by settler groups known as the “Hilltop Youth,” “Hilltop Girls,” and “Price Tag” have become more visible, with the open backing of far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. Alongside these assaults, plans to annex parts of the West Bank and seize more Palestinian land — particularly in Area C, as designated under the 1993 Oslo Accords — have come to light.

In the village of Beit Dajan, near Nablus in the northern West Bank, the story of Aisha Shtayyeh and her family reflect a pattern of settler and Israeli army violence targeting land, livestock, and livelihoods. According to Mohammad Shtayyeh, the family has endured a systematic campaign of harassment since 7 October — daily attacks affecting the elderly parents, their son, grandchildren, animals, and crops.

Aisha, her voice heavy with pain, recalls the day settlers forced the family to abandon their home — a house she and her husband spent 35,000 dinars building, filled with memories, effort, and dreams of dignity. The settlers looted the family’s electrical appliances, uprooted olive, lemon, and orange trees, and forced them to live in a makeshift tin shack, its floor covered with rubble and a few pieces of old furniture, surrounded by barbed wire and lacking even the most basic living conditions.

Amid rising violence and land seizures, families like Aisha Shteiyeh’s in Beit Dajan face daily assaults and forced displacement under the protection of Israeli forces.

Mohammad recounts the events of 15–18 October, when groups of settlers gathered and launched an organised assault on the house. “They threatened us, broke our solar panels, smashed the doors, destroyed the furniture, punctured the water tanks and the tractor tyres, and then set the house on fire while we were inside,” he said. “Our only concern was to get the children out and keep them safe.”

When the Israeli army and police arrived, it was not to protect the family from settler attacks but to order them to leave, claiming it was for their safety. After evacuating the children, the family tried to return, but the army prevented them. When Mohammad attempted to photograph the damage to preserve memories of their home, soldiers broke his phone and confiscated it.

The ordeal of Aisha’s family mirrors that of hundreds of Palestinian families subjected to what residents and rights groups describe as a systematic campaign of displacement and destruction — an attempt to impose a new reality on the ground through coordinated settler and military action.

According to the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Israel has confiscated hundreds of dunums of land in Area C under “security and military” pretexts to establish new settlement outposts. The commission documented 97 settler attacks in October alone and 2,350 incidents over the past two years. Meanwhile, Israeli authorities announced tenders in July 2024 for the construction of 5,300 new housing units across the West Bank.

This report was produced as part of the Qarib Project, implemented by the French Media Development Agency (CFI) and funded by the French Development Agency (AFD).