West Bank Violence Climbs as Settler Attacks Surge

More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the Gaza war began, the Palestinian Authority health ministry says. That figure casts a Thursday of overlapping incidents into stark relief: a commando raid in Jenin, a car-ramming near the settlement of Ateret, and an arson attack on a Palestinian vehicle in the South Hebron Hills.

The raid came first. On Thursday morning, troops from the Duvdevan Commando Unit captured an unnamed Palestinian in Jenin, acting on intelligence from the Shin Bet. The military described him as a member of a former terror network in the area. “The terrorist served as a key weapons dealer and acted to procure and transfer weapons to the terror network,” the IDF said. The man’s identity wasn't released; the base reporting gives no account from his family or Jenin residents.

A Night of Overlapping Incidents

That night, a car-ramming near Ateret lightly injured an Israeli civilian. Israeli security officials assessed it as a hit-and-run, not a terror attack. In a preliminary investigation, the IDF found that settlers from an illegal outpost in the area had disrupted traffic as they tried to block Palestinian motorists. A Palestinian driver fleeing the roadblock struck one of the settlers, who went to a hospital in light-to-moderate condition. “The forces launched a pursuit after the suspect and are establishing roadblocks in the area,” the military said.

That detail deserves a pause. By the IDF’s own preliminary account, settlers from an outpost Israeli authorities themselves call illegal started the confrontation by blocking a road against Palestinian drivers. A man fleeing that blockade now faces a manhunt.

Separately, Palestinian media outlets reported that extremist settlers set fire to a Palestinian car parked near a house in as-Samu, in the South Hebron Hills. No injuries were reported.

The Larger Pattern

Thursday’s events unfolded against a steady climb in violence. The IDF recorded 867 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence in 2025, up from 682 in 2024. That’s 185 more incidents in a single year. The violence has displaced dozens of Palestinian families, while critics accuse the government of condoning and encouraging it.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other ministers have regularly called the violence a marginal concern, saying nearly all incidents involve a few hundred wayward youths. The military’s own rising count sits uneasily beside that description.

Casualties on Both Sides

Israelis have also paid a toll. During the same period, attacks in Israel and the West Bank killed 67 civilians and Israeli security personnel. Clashes during raids in Palestinian cities in the West Bank killed eight other members of the security forces. The IDF says the vast majority of Palestinians killed were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or terrorists carrying out attacks. The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry doesn't distinguish among those categories in its reported figure.

Violence in the West Bank has risen since the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, now in its third anniversary period as of this month.

Why This Matters:

Raids, roadblocks and settler violence now run alongside one another in the West Bank. The line between a security operation and vigilante action blurs. When an Israeli military investigation finds that settlers from an illegal outpost provoked a confrontation, while the Palestinian driver is the one being hunted, it raises questions about how the law applies to people living in the same territory. The documented rise in settler attacks and the displacement of Palestinian families deepen grievances that fuel the cycle of violence and make a negotiated political settlement harder to imagine. Israeli security needs are real, and so is the toll on Israelis. But a government that dismisses a measurable surge as marginal leaves both communities less safe.