Israeli forces and settlers have dramatically intensified their activities across the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, carrying out a wave of attacks, land seizures, and property destruction that Palestinian officials describe as part of an “ongoing cycle of terror.” According to the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CRRC), a staggering 2,350 attacks were recorded in October 2025 alone, with the violence showing no signs of abating as the year draws to a close.
The CRRC’s monthly report, Occupation Violations and Colonial Expansion Measures, paints a grim picture of life for Palestinians in the West Bank. The report details that Israeli forces were responsible for 1,584 of the attacks, which included direct physical assaults, the demolition of homes, and the systematic uprooting of olive trees—a practice that has deep cultural and economic implications for Palestinian communities. The brunt of these attacks was felt in the governorates of Ramallah (542 incidents), Nablus (412), and Hebron (401), according to the CRRC, as cited by Al Jazeera.
Settler violence has also reached alarming levels. The CRRC documented 766 attacks by settlers, focusing once again on Ramallah (195 incidents), Nablus (179), and Hebron (126). The commission described these attacks as part of an “organised strategy that aims to displace the land’s indigenous people and enforce a fully racist colonial regime.” Olive pickers, in particular, have become frequent targets during the harvest season. The report described their plight as being the victims of “state terror” that is “orchestrated in the dark backrooms of the occupation government.”
Perhaps most striking is the environmental and economic toll these attacks have taken. In Hebron, Ramallah, Tubas, Qalqilya, Nablus, and Bethlehem, 1,200 olive trees have been uprooted, destroyed, or poisoned in recent weeks. For decades, the Israeli military has targeted olive trees—an enduring symbol of Palestinian heritage and livelihood—as part of broader efforts to seize land and displace residents. The recent spike in violence has coincided with the annual olive harvest, a time when Palestinian farmers are routinely attacked and prevented from accessing their fields.
The situation escalated further on the night of November 4, 2025, when large groups of settlers—protected by Israeli occupation forces—set fire to extensive tracts of Palestinian-owned agricultural land in the Wadi Yasuf area south of Nablus. Residents were blocked from reaching the area to assess the damage. Just a week earlier, settlers from the Kfar Tapuach settlement, illegally built on land belonging to the villages of Yasuf and Iskaka east of Salfit, bulldozed Palestinian farmland and constructed a settler-only road, further entrenching their presence in the area, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
In Hebron, another tragedy unfolded on November 4, 2025, when Israeli forces handed over the body of 35-year-old Ahmed Rubhi Al-Atrash, who had been killed two days earlier after being shot by an illegal Jewish settler at the northern entrance of the city. The handover of Al-Atrash’s body came amid heightened tensions and a backdrop of frequent confrontations between settlers, Israeli forces, and Palestinian residents.
Personal stories from the ground highlight the human cost of the violence. In Beit Anan, northwest of occupied East Jerusalem, two Palestinian brothers were assaulted by Israeli forces while harvesting olives on their own land. One of the brothers, Adham Jamhour, recounted how soldiers detained them, confiscated their vehicle and the olive harvest, and only released them later from a nearby military camp. Meanwhile, northwest of Ramallah, settlers raided Palestinian-owned agricultural areas, stealing harvested olives, grazing livestock on private property, and even stealing water from a local well, as reported by WAFA.
These incidents are not isolated. The CRRC report notes that settlers have attempted to establish seven new outposts on Palestinian land since October 2025, particularly in the governorates of Hebron and Nablus. This expansion is part of a broader trend: since the beginning of 2025, Israel’s Higher Planning Council (HPC)—a body within the Israeli army’s Civil Administration overseeing the occupied West Bank—has advanced plans for a record 28,195 housing units in settlements, according to the left-wing Israeli movement Peace Now. The group further revealed that 1,288 of these units are slated for two isolated settlements in the northern West Bank, Avnei Hefetz and Einav Plan, with the HPC holding weekly meetings since November 2024 to accelerate construction on land taken from Palestinians.
The latest flashpoint centers on the HPC’s expected meeting on November 5, 2025, to discuss the construction of an additional 1,985 new settlement units in the West Bank. Peace Now warns that these moves are normalizing and accelerating the construction of settlements, which are considered illegal under international law. The commission frames this as an “organised strategy” to displace Palestinians and entrench Israeli control.
Political rhetoric has further inflamed the situation. In August 2025, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich drew sharp international condemnation when he declared that plans to build thousands of homes as part of the proposed E1 settlement scheme would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.” The E1 project, shelved for years due to opposition from the United States and European allies, would connect occupied East Jerusalem with the existing settlement of Maale Adumim—effectively bisecting the West Bank and undermining prospects for a contiguous Palestinian state.
International responses have been mixed and, in the eyes of many Palestinians, insufficient. The United States, under President Donald Trump’s administration, has publicly opposed Israeli annexation of the West Bank. During a recent visit to Israel, US Vice President JD Vance stated, “If it was a political stunt, it is a very stupid one, and I personally take some insult to it,” reaffirming that the Trump administration would not allow Israel to annex the territory. However, critics point out that Washington has done little to restrain Israeli actions on the ground, even as it promotes its diplomatic efforts elsewhere, particularly regarding the Gaza ceasefire.
As the olive harvest season comes under siege and the prospect of new settlement construction looms, Palestinians in the West Bank face mounting uncertainty. The violence, land seizures, and expansion of settlements have left many feeling abandoned by the international community and increasingly vulnerable to further displacement. The coming weeks, with the HPC’s decisions and ongoing settler activity, could prove decisive in shaping the future of the West Bank—and the possibility, however faint, of a two-state solution.
The relentless cycle of attacks, displacement, and settlement expansion underscores the deepening crisis in the West Bank, leaving Palestinian communities bracing for what comes next as the world watches, often from a distance.
