Settlers have doubled their attacks in the West Bank since the war on Iran.

Settler crowds have escalated their attacks on Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank with the assistance of the Israeli army, which imposed movement restrictions during the war on Iran that settlers have used to intensify their aggression and kill six Palestinians since the start of that war.

“Settler crowds have escalated their attacks on Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank with the assistance of the Israeli army, which imposed movement restrictions during the war on Iran that settlers have used to intensify their aggression and kill six Palestinians since the start of that war”

Al-Jazeera Net

Human rights groups and medical teams say Israeli settlers in the West Bank are exploiting the movement restrictions during the war on Iran to attack Palestinians, and that military checkpoints are delaying ambulances from reaching victims quickly.

Al-Jazeera Net

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said settlers have killed at least five Palestinians in the West Bank since the United States and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28, and the Israeli human-rights group B’Tselem said a sixth man died after inhaling tear gas fired during an attack.

Settlers shot and killed two Palestinians before dawn last Sunday in the village of Abu Falah north of Ramallah, Reuters quoted eyewitnesses saying more than 100 settlers gathered on the outskirts and a WhatsApp group in the area mobilised men to protect the small village.

The initial confrontation involved stone-throwing, but armed settlers arrived afterward and began shooting, and a man who helped defend the village was shot dead while trying to protect a house.

Al-Jazeera Net

Bloodstains were still visible until Monday at the attack site in the olive groves, where villagers erected two Palestinian flags at the location where the two men were killed; a third Palestinian died after the attack and B’Tselem said he may have died from tear gas fired by Israeli forces stationed in the village during the assault.

The Israeli army said it has opened an investigation into the incident and condemned "any kind of violence."

The Israeli army closed many roads in the West Bank with metal gates and mounds of earth on the first day of the war and shut most crossings with Israel, actions the army describes as precautionary measures while it conducts airstrikes on Iran and as Lebanese group Hezbollah has fired rockets at Israel in solidarity with Tehran.

“Settler crowds have escalated their attacks on Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank with the assistance of the Israeli army, which imposed movement restrictions during the war on Iran that settlers have used to intensify their aggression and kill six Palestinians since the start of that war”

Al-Jazeera Net

Palestinians in remote West Bank villages say the checkpoints have made them more vulnerable to settler violence and that the Israeli army continues its routine raids on Palestinian cities and towns during quiet periods to arrest Palestinians, often without charge.

Paramedics say the new checkpoints have delayed reaching injured Palestinians, and Ahmed Jibril, spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service, said, "Indeed there is obstruction; there are even assaults by settlers and the army on the crews."

He cited incidents in the Yerza area of the northern Jordan Valley, Masafir Yatta, Beit 'Ur al-Tahta, Abu Falah, al-Mughayyer, and Kafr Malik, in addition to gates and earth barriers that hinder access to closed areas, causing delays in reaching injured people and patients in those areas that are exposed to settler attacks.

The Israeli monitoring group Yesh Din said there have been more than 109 reports of violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war on Iran, including shootings, physical assaults, property destruction, and threats, and Yesh Din said settlers were wearing Israeli army uniforms in three of the shooting incidents; the Israeli army has not yet responded to a request for comment and Palestinians accuse the army of protecting settlers rather than villagers.

B’Tselem said all the cases of Palestinians being killed by settlers reported this year occurred last week.

The United Nations says about 700 Palestinians were displaced by settler violence from the start of 2025 until early February 2026.

The Israeli government has expanded settlements in a construction campaign that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says aims to erase the idea of a Palestinian state, and right-wing Israeli minister Yossi Dagan announced the establishment of a new settlement at a strategic mountain site overlooking Nablus, one of 22 new settlements the Israeli government announced in May.

Al-Jazeera Net

According to a 2024 European Union report, more than 700,000 settlers live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank among over 3 million Palestinians.

Most of the world considers Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank illegal under international law governing military occupation.