Intensified International Condemnation of Isr Settlement Policies and Settler Terror

Settlement Weekly Report 10 – 16 Oct, 2026

By: Madeeha Al-A’raj

The ‘National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements stated in its latest weekly report , that for Palestinian farmers, the olive harvest season that amid mounting pressure from solidarity movements supporting the Palestinian people, international reactions to settler violence and terrorism and Israel’s settlement policy have begun to intensify. Particular concern has focused on settlement projects that threaten the prospects for a political settlement based on the so-called two-state solution, notably the E1 project and other destructive schemes aimed at fragmenting the West Bank and separating its urban centers. In a noteworthy development, Belgian FM Maxime Prevot said last Monday that his country had grown tired of delays in European action against Israel and had decided to take national measures to pressure the Israeli government. He stressed that changing Israel’s behavior required a unified European position. Prevot said Belgium unequivocally condemned the E1 settlement project because of its implications for violations of international law.
He also warned companies considering involvement in the project of potential legal consequences and reputational risks, stressing that the continuation of such practices made action increasingly urgent as Israeli elections approached. He added that Belgium, together with other European countries, had urged the EU to take concrete measures against Israel, including banning products originating from illegal settlements. Belgium had adopted this measure at the national level, he explained, but believed that implementing it across Europe would give it greater impact. Prevot also renewed his call for the suspension, even temporarily, of the EU - Israel trade agreement, arguing that combining diplomatic action with economic pressure could help change the Israeli government’s behavior.
The British announcement on Sept. 8th, banning the import of goods produced in West Bank settlements, triggered a confrontation between London and Tel Aviv, the latter of which responded swiftly by deciding to close the British Consulate in Jerusalem. Britain didn’ stop at a trade ban on settlement goods, its Foreign Secretary went further, accusing the Israeli occupation government of turning a blind eye to ‘ethnic cleansing’ being carried out by settlers in the Palestinian West Bank. It can thus be said that the wheels of sanctions against the occupying state have begun to turn, a process reminiscent of the sanctions imposed on the apartheid regime in South Africa. That process unfolded in several stages, beginning with symbolic, voluntary pressures in the 1950s, evolving into mandatory and stringent sanctions by the 1980s, and ultimately leading to the collapse of that regime.
Some political, economic, and human rights circles in Israel have begun to realize the danger of this path and are warning the government of its repercussions. In a letter sent to the Ministry of Housing, the Israel Lands Authority, and the State Property Custodian, the Israeli ‘Peace Now’ organization called for warning companies and banks against submitting bids to build projects in the E1 area. It called on these authorities to warn companies, contractors, banks, and financial institutions.
The letter indicated that these parties may not be aware of the risks of imposing international sanctions as a result of participating in construction tenders in the aforementioned area. Three tenders are currently underway, including more than 3,400 residential units and commercial complexes. The letter indicates that several countries have already warned companies against participating in construction work, and that the risks may extend to banks and other parties that finance, guarantee,´-or-support projects.
Within the context, the newspaper ‘Zman Yisrael’ reported that concerns among Israeli financial market officials and economists have intensified regarding the potential economic repercussions of construction tenders for settlements in the E1 area, east of occupied Jerusalem. There are warnings that proceeding with the project could expose Israeli financial institutions to international sanctions, given their role in financing settlements´-or-providing banking guarantees to the companies involved. What the newspaper revealed cannot be dismissed as a mere technical´-or-administrative dispute over risk management, rather, it reflects a structural contradiction within the Israeli political and economic system.
The warnings from economic officials regarding - a potential confrontation with European nations and broader repercussions that could extend beyond the real estate sector to affect financial institutions - highlight a clash between policies of settlement expansion and the constraints of integration into the global financial system. These warnings are particularly significant because the companies competing for the project’s tenders require banking guarantees amounting to NIS 14.4 million. Banks, therefore, are not merely neutral financial intermediaries-;- they play a fundamental role in providing the financial instruments necessary to carry out the settlement project.

Not only the expansion of settlement activities and the establishment of terrorist settler outposts and pastoral farms that are driving the imposition of sanctions on the occupying state, but also settler violence and terrorism have come under increasing scrutiny in political capitals, particularly across Europe, given their role in the displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians under the auspices of the occupying authorities. In a report published on 12 Oct, the independent German news outlet, which has a progressive outlook and supports peace, disarmament, the causes of the Global South, opposition to occupation, and Palestinian rights, warned of escalating displacement, settlement expansion, and attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. It stressed that these practices contribute to expanding Israeli control over the land and forcing residents to leave their communities, amid a lack of international accountability.
The report emphasized that what is unfolding in the West Bank is not-limit-ed to isolated military operations but constitutes a gradual process of displacement carried out through home demolitions, settler attacks, nighttime raids on Palestinian homes, the deprivation of Palestinian communities of water, and severe restrictions on movement. According to the report, settlers carried out more than 1,200 attacks resulting in injuries´-or-property damage since the beginning of 2026, averaging 6 attacks a day. These attacks led to the displacement of 37,135 Palestinians, while more than 190 water and sanitation facilities had been damaged´-or-destroyed by June.
In an article published in ‘The New York Times’ on the 9th of this month, Israeli researcher Dr. Shira Efron warned of the widening and deepening international isolation imposed on Israel. She noted that countries, such as, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Canada, and France, with 9 other European nations intending to follow suit, have taken unprecedented measures, ranging from imposing sanctions and targeting settlement products to banning the sale of Israeli bonds. These actions are a -dir-ect consequence of the current government’s policies most notably the decision to pursue construction in the E1 area.
Moreover, the escalation of settler attacks, and the silence of the U.S. Administration, Efron further pointed out that none of Benjamin Netanyahu’s rivals in the upcoming elections, such as Avigdor Liberman, Naftali Bennett,´-or-Gadi Eizenkot, have proposed a plan for radical change. Instead, they offer only schemes for managing the conflict, imposing-limit-ed self-rule,´-or-pursuing partial annexation. Such approaches will fail to halt Israel’s growing international isolation unless a future government takes concrete steps to curb settler violence and -restore- the prospect of Palestinian sovereignty.
Within the context, 47 Palestinian families in Khirbet Ras Ahmar, southeast of Tubas in the northern Jordan Valley, are facing the threat of forced displacement amid an ongoing siege that has lasted for nearly 30 days. Israeli occupation forces have closed all access routes to the community, including -dir-t tracks, cut off water supplies, and prevented the delivery of animal feed. At the same time, settlers have threatened residents in an attempt to force them to leave.
Thus, residents have been forced to leave their homes on foot at night´-or-in the early hours of the morning, fearing that Israeli forces will spot them and confiscate their vehicles. They have also resorted to using animals to transport essential supplies from neighboring towns and villages, as life in the community has become increasingly difficult. Livestock farmers, whose herds are their main source of income, have been particularly affected, while students can no longer reach their schools. Some families have already been forced to leave under the pressure of threats and dwindling supplies of water and animal feed.
The residents’ suffering, however, isn’t-limit-ed to the closure of roads. They say the siege on the community has intensified over nearly three years, reaching a dangerous turning point in mid-Sept, when Israeli occupation forces dug a trench across the last remaining access route, which was passable only by animals and agricultural tractors.
Then again, the ‘Peace Now organization’ revealed that the ‘Harvest - Coordination Orders’ issued by the occupation army during this year s olive harvest season express the truth of the criminal policy pursued by the government. Settlers are illegally seizing more and more hilltops with government encouragement and support, while the army is closing vast areas to the Palestinians under the pretext of "preventing friction" in a system based on the theft of property and plunder, and constitutes a disgrace to the Israeli State.
Settler terror during this year’s olive harvest season has reached unprecedented levels. Last year, as in previous years, military coordination was granted very late in the season after part of the crop had already rotted´-or-been stolen by settlers, and was-limit-ed to brief periods of no more than one´-or-2 days, preventing farmers from completing the harvest. In practice, the requirement for ‘coordination’ has effectively become a mechanism for denying Palestinians access to their ancestral lands, passed down through generations.
The 2026 olive Harvest Season in the occupied West Bank has witnessed an unprecedented escalation in attacks by settlers and Israeli occupation forces, compounding the daily hardships faced by Palestinian farmers. According to the latest figures, the National Bureau has documented more than 150 -dir-ect attacks between the beginnings of Oct till 15 of the month. Settlers carried out about 100 attacks, while 25 involved the joint participation of settlers and the Israeli army, and 20 were carried out by the army alone. The attacks also injured Palestinian and foreign solidarity activists, who intervened to protect farmers, as occurred in the Deir Ibzi’ area, west of Ramallah . Fatalities and injuries were also reported in attacks involving live fire, severe beatings, and pepper spray. In the Ramin Plain and the Bazaria area, east of Tulkarm, farmer Ali Hassan Al-Bazzari was killed and 9 other Palestinians sustained injuries of varying severity.
The attacks affected many governorates, in Salfeet Governorate, including Qarawat Bani Hassan, Rafat, and Wadi Al-Shaer, local authorities documented injuries to more than 20 farmers resulting from physical assaults and severe beatings. Among those injured were brothers, Moh’d and Nasrallah Khuffash and farmer Ismail Abu Asba in Rafat. In Ramallah and Al-Bireh, 9 people were injured in Deir Abu Mishal, while 5 farmers and their family members were injured in Rantis. Elsewhere, a Palestinian man and 2 of his children were taken to hospital after being attacked with pepper spray near the Al-Ka’abna Bedouin community. In Jerusalem, including Anata and Abu Dis, several Palestinians sustained injuries and bruises after being beaten and assaulted while confronting settlers who had set fire to their trees and prevented them from working. Journalists were also targeted. In a widely reported incident, the Washington Post correspondent Ali Heidi Levin was assaulted while covering the hardships faced by olive pickers in Abu Falah, south of Ramallah, in the presence of Israeli occupation forces.
This comes amid the Israeli Occupation Army’s Central Command Chief issuing special orders barring Palestinians from entering about 88,300 dunums of land without prior military coordination. This represents an increase of around 30% compared with 2025, when about 69,000 dunums were subject to the same requirement. The area of land from which the army barred settlers, ostensibly to prevent violence and disturbances committed by settlers, shrank from about 10,700 dunums in 2025 to just 6,890 dunums in 2026.

List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:

Jerusalem:
- Raiding olive groves in the Mikhmas town as farmers headed to their lands to harvest olives.
- Surrounding the Bedouin Communities of Al-Mahattush and Al-Tabneh, near the Khan Ahmar area, with barbed wire aimed at besieging the communities, restricting the movement of residents and herders, and cutting links between them.
- Setting fire to a mosque and a vehicle in Mikhmas.
- Forcing resident Fadel Rajabi to demolish his own home in Beit Hanina, citing construction without a permit, and demolishing 3 homes belonging to the Shawamreh family in the Al-Ashqarieh Neighborhood of the town.
- Israeli occupation authorities handing the al-Razam family an eviction order for a residential building in Qalandiya village, citing a court ruling.
- Israeli occupation bulldozers demolishing two homes belonging to Hani al-Salaymeh and his father in the Wadi Qaddum neighborhood of Silwan.

Hebron:
- Attacking a 79 year old woman in the Birin village, sustaining moderate injuries after settlers from the newly established ‘Adorim outpost,’ located in the Khallat Furn area, while picking olive. One of their dogs bit the woman on her upper thigh, leaving her moderately injured. Ambulance crews subsequently transferred her to hospital.
- Attacking members of the Na’ameen family in the Khirbet Aqwaweis, Masafer Yatta, while they were harvesting olives and attempting to seize their equipment before preventing them from continuing to harvest their crops.
- Blocking the road leading to the home of resident Ayoub Obeid Masri, in the Khallat Hummus, south of Yatta, conducting provocative patrols in the area.
- Demolishing an agricultural room and a water tank belonging to a member of the Qawasmi family, in the Khirbet Soba, south of Hebron, and uprooting olive, almond, and other fruit trees.
- Attacking residents’ homes and assaulting their occupants, leaving elderly resident Jebreen Musa Na’ameen bruised and suffering contusions in the Khirbet Aqwaweis, Masafer Yatta. Ambulance crews transferred him to Yatta Governmental Hospital.
Bethlehem:
- Bringing in and installing new mobile homes in the Abu Za’arour area, east of Al-Minya village.
- Assaulting 4 elderly farmers and detaining them for hours while they were harvesting olives near a settlement south of Bethlehem. The farmers were attacked while working on their land, with Ibrahim Issa sustaining particularly severe injuries. He was transferred to hospital, where he remains in a coma in the intensive care unit.
- Beating 3Palestinians in the Abu Njeim area, including -dir-ar Salah, who was transferred to hospital.
Ramallah:
- Cutting off electricity to the Al-Marj area of Deir Dibwan after raiding the area and uprooting electricity poles.
- Injuring 10 Palestinians, including journalists, with rubber-coated metal bullets during an attack by settlers and Israeli occupation forces on farmers harvesting olives in Deir Abu Mash’al.
- Attacking Palestinians in Al-Mughayyir village, stealing olive crops, breaking several trees, and releasing their sheep onto Palestinian agricultural land in the village’s eastern plain.
- Expelling farmers from their lands in Wadi Abwein and preventing them from harvesting olives. Video footage documented soldiers forcing farmers to leave and barring them from continuing the harvest.
- Seizing a vehicle belonging to the Ein Yabrud village council and stealing bags of olives and agricultural equipment from inside.
- Expelling farmers from their lands in Kafr Ni’ma village and preventing them from harvesting olives.
- Attacking farmers in the Khallat Ali area of Burqa village, forcing them to leave their lands and warning them not to return to resume harvesting olives, and stealing olive crops in the Atara town.
Nablus:
- Uprooting more than 200 olive trees in the Al-Sur area east of the Awarta village before their owners could harvest the olives, depriving them of the season’s crop.
- Detaining 3 residents of Qabalan in the Al-Muntar area near the ‘Avitar’ outpost.
- Assaulting residents in the Al-Shajara neighborhood on the eastern side of Duma.
- Attacking farmers in the Al-Dalba area of Burqa village and forcing them to leave their lands.
- Attacking a house and demolishing a wall in the Ras al-Ain area of Qusra.
- Setting up caravans placing construction equipment on Palestinian-owned land in Salem village, under the protection of Israeli occupation forces.
- Attacking farmers harvesting olives between Qusra and Jalud and stealing olive harvesting equipment.
- Cutting off electricity to the Al-Mas’udiyya area for the fifth time in just over 2 months, in an attempt to pressure local residents.
Tulkarm:
- Attacking farmers in the Dahr Abd area of Qaffin and stealing their olive harvest and harvesting equipment.
- Injuring 2 Palestinian women sustained injuries after being assaulted by settlers while picking olives in Beit Lid.
- Forcing several farmers to leave their lands in the Wadi Jami’ and Ramin Plain areas at gunpoint and preventing them from continuing the olive harvest.
Salfeet:
1. Injuring a young man from the Kafr Deek town, named Diya Nazih Naji, while harvesting olives on his land west of the town.
2. Firing live ammunition to prevent farmers from reaching their lands and forcing them to leave the northern part of Deir Ballut. They also attacked a farmer’s vehicle while he was on his land in the same area.
3. Preventing Palestinians from harvesting olives in the towns of Al-Zawiya and Marda and detaining several women in the Al-Ain area south of Al-Zawiya, barring them from continuing the harvest.
4. Raiding the Khirbet area east of Marda, checking residents’ identification documents and preventing them from continuing to harvest olives.
5. Expelling all Palestinian families from their lands in the western part of the Deirestiya town, while settlers stealing olive crops from several areas of the town.
6. Demolishing 3 vehicle-repair workshops used for mechanical repairs and bodywork in Hares village.
Jenin:
- Stealing 16 bags of olives from a vehicle belonging to Rabie Makhlof, which was carrying 70 bags of olives and had been detained by Israeli occupation forces at the Dotan military checkpoint near Ya’bad?
- Attacking olive pickers in Ya’bad, south of Jenin, assaulting them, stealing their olive harvest and forcing them to leave their lands despite having obtained prior coordination to harvest the olives.
- Firing tear-gas canisters at farmers from the towns of al-Fandaqumiya, Jaba’, and Silat al-Dhahr as they headed to their agricultural lands to harvest olives, forcing them to leave their lands.
Jordan Valley:
- Assaulting a young man in the Deir Diok Al-Tahta village, near Wadi Qelt, west of Jericho.
- Stealing a resident’s livestock from the northern Yarza Bedouin community, but residents confronting them and successfully recovering the herd.
- Blocking the road leading to the northern Yarza community, northeast of Tayasir, with stones and attacking houses near the Aqbat Tayasir area, restricting residents’ movement and threatening the stability of Bedouin communities in the area.
- Damaging irrigation networks and agricultural pipelines and stealing water valves and meters belonging to farmers in the northern Yarza community, east of Tubas.

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