The occupied West Bank is witnessing an increasingly explosive reality as settler attacks continue almost around the clock, in scenes many Palestinians say resemble the events that preceded the 1948 Nakba.
For many, the similarities are impossible to ignore. During the Nakba, armed Zionist militias such as the Haganah carried out attacks on Palestinian villages, committing killings, looting, arson, and destruction under British Mandate protection.
Today, Palestinians say Israeli settlers are replicating the same model — using violence, intimidation, and forced displacement under Israeli military, political, and legal protection to reproduce a new Nakba in the West Bank.
In recent years, settler violence has sharply escalated, but Palestinians say attacks intensified dramatically after October 2023. Specialists and activists now describe what is happening as a “new Nakba,” marked by forced displacement, land seizures, and systematic terror targeting Palestinian villages and Bedouin communities.
According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Israeli forces and settlers carried out 1,637 attacks across the West Bank during April alone, including 540 attacks by settlers.
Every year on May 15, Palestinians commemorate the Nakba — the mass displacement of Palestinians following the establishment of Israel in 1948 on the ruins of destroyed Palestinian towns and villages.
Forced Displacement
As part of what Palestinians describe as a renewed displacement campaign, settlers have increasingly focused on small rural and Bedouin communities.
Their tactics include establishing illegal outposts, destroying infrastructure, carrying out daily assaults, restricting access to grazing land, and confiscating or stealing livestock to create unbearable living conditions.
United Nations and human rights reports, including findings by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, documented the displacement of at least 45 Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities in the West Bank between January 2023 and April 2026.
Late last year, settlers succeeded in forcibly displacing the entire community of Yanoun under sustained intimidation and attacks.
“A Settler State”
Settlement activist Aed Al-Ghafri said the West Bank is entering a phase even more dangerous than the Nakba of 1948, warning that what is happening in the town of Al-Mughayyir is only the beginning.
“The Nakba in the West Bank started in Al-Mughayyir and will reach everyone — village after village, city after city,” he said.
Al-Ghafri argued that a “settler state” is already taking shape on the ground in the West Bank, advancing settlers’ long-standing goal of eliminating the possibility of a Palestinian state.
He compared modern settler militias to the Haganah gangs of the 1940s, saying they are waging an ideological war against every aspect of Palestinian life.
“They target children, trees, animals — everything Palestinian,” he said, adding that the violence reflects direct Israeli support and protection.
“What we are witnessing today is the repetition of Zionist massacres after 78 years,” he added. “This is Deir Yassin 2 under the leadership of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir.”
A “Settlement Nakba”
Settlement affairs activist Bashar Al-Qaryouti described the situation as a “settlement Nakba,” where killings, forced displacement, arson, and organized terror are being used to impose Israeli control over the entire West Bank.
He said settlers are now attempting to erase Palestinian history and identity while tightening control over land and communities.
According to Al-Qaryouti, settlement expansion has evolved beyond land confiscation and hilltop takeovers into direct attacks on Palestinians themselves through killings, village raids, and assaults on homes.
“The same methods used during the Nakba eight decades ago are being repeated today,” he said. “Villages are attacked, homes and farms are burned, residents are terrorized and forcibly displaced.”
He noted that Palestinians are now witnessing simultaneous land seizure, settlement outpost construction, village invasions, and killings within a very short period.
“There has never been a moment like this before,” he said.
Al-Qaryouti also warned that settlers are gradually taking control of areas surrounding Palestinian villages — and in some cases, establishing outposts inside neighborhoods themselves.
“There are villages whose residents now live in a daily nightmare trying to remain in their homes,” he said.
### Coordination Between Settlers and the Army
Palestinians say settler militias operate in full coordination with the Israeli army, carrying out attacks openly under military protection.
Al-Qaryouti said Israeli authorities provide settlers with weapons, operational freedom, and security cover through the army and police, which routinely ignore settler crimes.
Despite multiple complaints filed over killings carried out by settlers against Palestinians, he said no settler has been arrested even in cases where evidence clearly identified the attackers.
For Palestinians, this reflects a dangerous escalation toward full settler domination over large parts of the West Bank.
“When settlers can roam through Palestinian villages on ATVs or horseback without any restriction, this is no longer random violence,” Al-Qaryouti said. “It is the beginning of imposed sovereignty on the ground.”
He warned that if the situation continues unchecked, Palestinians could face a massive settlement expansion campaign involving the seizure of residential areas and the forced displacement of entire communities.
Translated from: snd news agency, Gaza
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