World News
UN experts and human rights groups label rising West Bank settler violence as 'pogroms'
Human rights organizations and UN officials report a surge in Israeli settler attacks and military actions displacing Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank.
The short version
- Human rights organizations, UN officials, and experts have increasingly described violent attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as 'pogroms'.
- The UN humanitarian office recorded over 1,330 settler-related attacks between January and late July 2026, marking an average of six incidents daily.
- Since January 2023, settler violence, demolitions, and military operations have forcibly displaced thousands of Palestinians across scores of West Bank communities.
Key facts
- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recorded more than 1,330 settler-related attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank between January and late July 2026.[Al Jazeera]
- Humanitarian tracking shows that 107 communities comprising 5,900 Palestinians have been fully or partially displaced by settler violence since January 2023.[Al Jazeera]
- UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, human rights group B'Tselem, and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention have characterized settler attacks against Palestinians as pogroms.[Al Jazeera]
- The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission estimates that roughly 780,000 Israeli settlers live in 192 settlements and 400 outposts across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.[Al Jazeera]
- Human rights groups warn that Israel's plans for the E1 settlement near Jerusalem would split the West Bank into two separate sections.[Al Jazeera]
What remains uncertain
- The term 'pogrom' lacks a formal, universally established definition under international law.[Al Jazeera]