The U.N. human rights office said on Wednesday that violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank has deteriorated, and it urged international action to confront both the killings of Palestinians and a surge in settlement building that it said has reached record levels.
United Nations figures cited by the office show that 18 Palestinians have been killed in incidents linked to settler attacks so far this year, compared with 17 in the whole of 2025. The Palestinian Authority has reported a slightly different tally, saying at least 20 Palestinians have been killed by settlers since the start of the year.
Last Friday, four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers - one of whom was serving as a security coordinator for a nearby Israeli settlement - were killed when a crowd of Israeli settlers, some armed, approached the Palestinian village of Tal, southwest of Nablus.
Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, described a pattern of violence in a statement: "Settlers and Israeli security forces, often acting together, have attacked local communities, assaulting families, destroying and confiscating property, and burning mosques." The U.N. office said it had seen a worsening of settler violence and actions it characterized as tantamount to ongoing annexation of Palestinian territory in the West Bank in the two years since a ruling at the International Court of Justice in July 2024 that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory and settlements there were illegal and should be withdrawn.
Israel rejected the ICJ finding at the time as "fundamentally wrong" and one-sided, according to the U.N. office summary. The Israeli government and military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the U.N. human rights office's latest statement.
Observers the U.N. cited note a broader rise in violence in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, with U.N. bodies, rights groups and Palestinian officials reporting an uptick in settler attacks during that period.
Earlier in July, Israel's security cabinet approved 1.3 billion shekels ($434 million) to establish 34 new settlements in the West Bank. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who advocates full annexation of the West Bank, described the move as "historic." The U.N. and many countries, along with Palestinian and rights groups, consider the settlements illegal under international conventions - a stance Israel disputes.
The U.N. figures and commentary underline demographic pressures on the territory: about 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The human rights office's appeal for international action framed both the killings and the expansion of settlements as urgent concerns requiring attention.
Context and reporting limits
The information in this report reflects data and statements provided by the U.N. human rights office and the Palestinian Authority, alongside the cited actions by Israel's security cabinet. Where counts differ between the U.N. and the Palestinian Authority, both figures are recorded above. No further official responses from Israeli authorities were available at the time of publication.