On August 16, 2025, tensions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip reached new heights as Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich publicly declared his intention to push forward a long-delayed settlement project. According to Reuters, Smotrich’s vow was nothing short of a promise to "bury" the idea of a Palestinian state—a statement that instantly drew international condemnation and stoked fears of further destabilization in the region.
The United Nations rights office wasted no time responding. On Friday, a spokesperson warned that the proposed settlement expansion would effectively fracture the West Bank into isolated enclaves, making a contiguous Palestinian state all but impossible. The office went so far as to call the plan "a war crime for an occupying power to transfer its own civilian population into the territory it occupies," underscoring the gravity of the moment and the deepening rift between Israel and much of the international community.
Currently, about 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, a move unrecognized by most of the world, but has stopped short of formally extending sovereignty over the West Bank. Most world powers maintain that expanding settlements undermines the viability of a two-state solution by breaking up the very territory Palestinians hope to claim for a future independent state. The two-state vision, still supported by many global actors, envisages a Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza, existing peacefully alongside Israel—a vision that seems increasingly elusive.
Israel, for its part, cites historical and biblical ties to the land and argues that the settlements provide strategic depth and security. Israeli officials repeatedly insist that the West Bank is "disputed," not "occupied," a distinction that carries weight in domestic politics but finds little purchase internationally.
While these political declarations played out on the global stage, violence on the ground continued unabated. On August 16, Israeli forces and paramilitary settlers pressed on with daily invasions of Palestinian towns and villages across the West Bank. The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as reported by WAFA, condemned what it called "settler terrorism and escalating crimes against Palestinian citizens, their lands, homes, vehicles, trees, livelihoods, and holy sites." The Ministry specifically cited recent attacks in Duma village, south of Nablus, Attara, Al-Mazra’a Al-Sharqiya, Abu Falah in Ramallah, the Jordan Valley, and Masafer Yatta.
In a strongly worded statement, the Ministry held the Israeli government directly responsible for these crimes, accusing it of enabling settler violence under the protection of the occupation army and with the continued incitement of ministers in the "extremist government." The Ministry also criticized the international community’s response as "insufficient and not rising to the level of the terrorism, genocide, displacement, starvation, and annexation to which the Palestinian people are subjected," and called for more "daring international positions and measures to impose an immediate halt to the crimes of the occupation."
The numbers paint a grim picture. Over the past month, Israeli settlers carried out 466 attacks on Palestinian villages and Bedouin communities, according to official tallies. The attacks were concentrated in Ramallah (126), Hebron (103), Nablus (83), and Bethlehem (39), resulting in widespread fear and instability among Palestinian residents.
Friday’s violence was particularly severe. In Gaza, Israeli attacks killed 51 people, including families sheltering in a school that was bombed, as reported by WAFA. In the West Bank, Israeli occupation forces stormed Kafr Qaddum village, east of Qalqilya, firing sound bombs and deploying in the Shamiya neighborhood. In Jericho, Israeli settlers forced two families—the Ayed Musa Ka’abneh and Ibrahim Ayed Ka’abneh families—out of their homes in the Al-Auja waterfall community after violent attacks inside their homes, according to Hassan Malihat of the Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights and Targeted Villages.
Meanwhile, in Bethlehem, Israeli forces closed a side road in Tuqu’, erecting earth mounds at the western entrance and further tightening the closure of the town. In Ramallah, settlers stormed Sinjil town, firing live ammunition at residents, and cut down olive trees in Abu Falah village. In Atara, settlers set fire to four vehicles and parts of a house at dawn, throwing Molotov cocktails and spraying racist slogans on walls, while the occupation army provided protection for the attackers.
The violence extended to Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, where settlers attacked a Palestinian man and his wife with sticks and batons, causing head and hand injuries that required hospitalization. Activist Osama Makhamreh described how settlers attacked homes, broke fruit trees, and destroyed vehicles, all with the apparent aim of displacing residents for the benefit of colonial expansion.
Elsewhere, Israeli occupation forces abducted three Palestinians during a raid into Yatta town, south of Hebron, and fired smoke grenades while storming Beit Awwa, southwest of Hebron. In Nablus, forces stormed a residential building and the city itself, continuing a pattern of near-daily incursions.
The international response has been swift but, in the eyes of many Palestinians, inadequate. The French Foreign Ministry condemned the demolition of a school under construction near Tubas, a project funded by the French Development Agency and the European Union that was expected to serve about 100 children. This marked the second such demolition of a French-funded school in the West Bank in recent years. The French statement called the continuation of Israel’s settlement policy "a serious violation of international law and a threat to the possibility of a two-state solution."
Diplomatic tensions also flared at the United Nations. Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour condemned the storming of national leader Marwan Barghouti’s prison cell by extremist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who reportedly used "obscene language and fascist racist hatred" during the incident and publicized his actions on social media. Mansour urged the international community, including the Security Council, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the International Criminal Court, to take action against what he described as flagrant violations of international law and to hold Israeli leaders accountable.
As the cycle of violence, settlement expansion, and diplomatic recrimination continues, the prospects for peace in the region grow dimmer by the day. The events of August 16, 2025, serve as a stark reminder of the deep divisions and the urgent need for meaningful international intervention—before the window for a two-state solution, already narrowing, closes for good.
