Palestinians flee villages as settler violence surges in West Bank amid war
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A Palestinian village school had been ransacked and a dozen houses nearby were abandoned. In some, a few belongings remained: a mattress and children's shoes.
This was Khirbet Zanutah in the West Bank which has been under Israeli military occupation for decades. In late October, its roughly 250 residents fled, packing up their homes, saying attacks and threats from Israeli settlers had become intolerable, according to villagers.
"They said to us, 'If you don't leave, we will come in the night and shoot you all," Faris Samara, who had lived in Khirbet Zanutah, told ABC News. "We had no choice but to leave."
MORE: Israel-Gaza live updates
The small village is one of over a dozen Palestinian villages in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that have emptied since the surprise Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7. Over 1,000 residents have fled the West Bank, saying they have been forced from their homes by a surge in Israeli settler violence and intimidation, left unchecked by Israel's security forces, according to the United Nations and the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.
At least 270 people have been killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
This is part of a broader push in the West Bank by extreme settlers trying to take advantage of the war to increase pressure on Palestinian communities, exploiting an atmosphere of impunity following the Hamas massacre, according to residents, human rights groups, and experts.
Residents and human rights groups accuse far-right Israeli leaders, some of whom hold key positions in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, of fanning the campaign. The Hamas attack has emboldened Israel's far right, with extreme views now sometimes voiced in the mainstream, with far-right leaders—including some government ministers—calling for the permanent resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza.
It has broader implications: beyond the human toll, it threatens to scuttle any international hopes—led by the United States—for a new two-state solution to emerge after the war.
"I think the settlers right now are in an orgy," Gideon Levy, a prominent journalist at Israel's liberal Haaretz newspaper, told ABC News. "They understand, that's their money time. That's their big opportunity."
ABC News was brought to the abandoned village on a media tour by an Israeli settler group, Regavim. The non-governmental organization, which says its mission is "to protect Israel's land and natural resources," was keen to show a group of journalists from different outlets why it thought it was good the villagers were gone.
Regavim has campaigned for years to remove the villagers, accusing them of squatting illegally on a Jewish archaeological site and lacking proper building permits.
Naomi Kahn, Regavim's international division director, told reporters on the tour that "no settler ever stepped foot anywhere near here" and "no violence ever occurred here," that the people living in the village were no longer supported by the Palestinian authority when the conflict started.
"When the war broke out, the people living here who were no longer supported by the Palestinian authority that is otherwise engaged right now realized that it was not in their best—that it was possible they would be relocated forcibly or they were afraid that the demolition orders would actually be enforced,” Kahn said.
"It has nothing to do with individual settlers, vigilantes, violence of any kind," she added.
But the villagers tell a very different story.
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"On October 7, the [Israeli] settlers went crazy," Faris Samara told ABC News. "They came with army, came in a group, and anyone who would go outside they would beat up and kick out."
Most of the villagers were shepherds, Sarama said. Settlers had harassed the village for years, he said—bringing their sheep to graze on the land and sometimes opening water tanks—but after the attack, the campaign dramatically escalated.
"They would come at night. Not just one, but 30 or 40 of them. They come with guns," he said. "They beat people up."
Samara said the settlers punched holes in the shepherds' water tanks and smashed electricity boxes.
His 9-year-old son, Ali, told ABC News, that a settler had hit him and threatened him with a gun.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. Khirbet Zanutah is located in the 60% of the West Bank that is under full Israeli military control, known as Area C. The villagers had gone to court to fight efforts to evict them for years, including petitioning Israel's Supreme Court. The European Union had funded the village school as part of a program protecting Palestinian villages seen as "at risk of forcible displacement."
Since ABC News visited the school, it has been set fire to and then bulldozed along with most of the rest of the village.
Samara and his 18 children now live in a nearby Palestinian village. They brought their 200 sheep with them to their new home, but they had no place to leave them outside.
Across the West Bank, Palestinians express fear of emboldened settlers, accusing Israeli security forces of failing to prosecute attackers and sometimes directly joining in harassment and intimidation.
'It's about displacement'
Since Oct. 7, Israeli security forces have placed most neighborhoods in the city's H2 district, which is under Israeli military control, under an extreme lockdown, the harshest in decades. Hebron was already one of the most restrictive places for Palestinian residents, where a settler community lives inside the Palestinian city.
The area's streets were deserted except for frequent Israeli patrols when ABC News visited. Residents have reported being confined to their homes by Israeli soldiers, who raise their guns at them if they try to step outside.
"It used to be a ghost town, now it's worse!" Issa Amro, a well-known Palestinian peace activist, told ABC News on a street of homes with the shutters pulled. On a nearby Palestinian house, a Star of David symbol had been sprayed on in blue paint.
"People don't work. They don't go to school. We have no life," he said.
Amro—who was filmed by a New Yorker reporter being assaulted by an Israeli soldier in February—said harassment had increased since far-right leaders had joined Netanyahu's government last year. The Israel Defense Forces said it later jailed the soldier for 10 days and suspended him from duty over the incident.
But after the Hamas terror attack, the war had supercharged the harassment, he said.
He said that on Oct. 7, Israeli soldiers and settlers in uniform had handcuffed and then beaten and humiliated him over 10 hours.
"Spitting on me. Hitting, punching me in the face," he said. Amro also said a soldier had sexually assaulted him.
The IDF declined to comment directly on Amro's allegations but said its forces abide by international law.
"Everyone talks about settler violence. It's not only settler violence. It's government violence," Amro said. It's about displacement. They want this area without the Palestinians," he said.
The likelihood of a two-state solution
Before the war, to keep his government coalition together, Netanyahu gave key positions to extreme far-right leaders: Itamar Ben-Gvir as minister of national security and Bezalel Smotrich as finance minister.
Long on the fringe of Israeli politics, both men are known for their extreme positions and inflammatory calls for greater Palestinian displacement. Ben-Gvir, a settler himself, has previously been convicted of incitement to racism and for supporting a banned violent Jewish militia. He now oversees Israel's police and Border Police.
The far-right's expanding influence in the West Bank threatens to derail international hopes for a political solution to the Israel-Hamas conflict if and when the war ends.
The U.S. State Department this month announced visa bans were being imposed on some extreme settlers linked to violence, as President Biden has publicly urged Israel's government to rein in the settlers.
The Biden administration has said after the war Israel must make a new effort for a two-state solution. But Netanyahu—who already has spent most of his political career sabotaging the possibility of a Palestinian state, has already signaled opposition to it. His far-right allies, on whom the coalition that keeps him in power depends, are also vehemently opposed.
That is likely to become an increasingly key flashpoint with the Biden administration. President Joe Biden said at a fundraising event this week that Netanyahu needed to change his government and should remove the far-right elements, naming Ben-Gvir by name.
"The two-state solution from my point of view died [a] long time ago because you have got 700,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank and there is no room for a Palestinian state just because of this," Levy said. "It would likely take the U.S. threatening to withhold military aid to have a chance of forcing Israel's current government to seek a political solution."
"Right now, it's very hard to think in terms of hopes," Levy added.
ABC News' Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
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These actions by Israel can lead to another war, and it could be Hamas and Hezbollah.
stolen land, illegal annexation, and illegal settlements. the 3 reasons why bibi and his radical religious supporters in the knesset don't want a 2 state solution.
Well, that explains why every two state solution has been rejected by Palestinians!
It's all Israel's fault!
If a well-known fact that Netanyahu undermined every two-state solution that has been brought to the table and in fact has stated a short time ago there will never be a two state solution.
His cabinet are far rightwing radicals whose goal it is to drive all Palestinians and Bedouins out of the West Bank and take it all for Israel.
How many and who brought two-state solutions to the table while Netanyahu was prime minister?
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I said he undermined the two state solution. See comment for 1.1.3
2 state is mentioned in article so 1.1.1 stays, by charger
They will lose badly.
Palestinians living in Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, and Gaza will suffer even more. Lebanon and Syria will lose more land to Israel either in annexation; or demilitarized buffer zones. They won't even bother to fight it (Israel will still ravage their militaries. Hope Europe is ready for another influx of Arab refugees). Lebanon (thanks to the US catering to Israel) has a military that is no better than a SWAT team. Syria is victim to a long Civil War with the rebels being backed by the US. Even in the best of times for them they couldn't hope to beat Israel. Jordan and Egypt will do the normal- enforce their borders against fleeing Palestinian refugees and sit the war out. OPEC might cut the US/Israel off- but that is about the furthest it will go. Iran isn't ready for war with Israel- so Hezbollah and Hamas will be on their own. (Hamas already is on their own. The Houthi are the only ones doing anything- and sending drones after US military craft isn't doing anything to deter Israel.) Once Iran gets nuclear weapons all bets are off. They might not be able to win a military confrontation with Israel; but a nuclear one- Israel is tiny, and their air defenses while top notch aren't perfect.
Bibi and his fellow fascists have won. The US has handed him the the victory with it's unconditional support for decades.
Israel doesn't even need our extra billions in emergency funding. It's military is more than capable of winning a 3 front war with all of the US aid it has received; now that the shackles have been removed by Oct 7th.
My friend's family has over 100 family members in the West Bank; and only 1 left living in Gaza (She is a nurse and luckily made it out with a rich patient that paid her way into Egypt). The family has filed asylum papers in the US; but that could take years to be granted. Egypt doesn't want her (guess they have enough qualified nurses); and they are now searching for a host country to take her. Not sure where they are going to eject her too. Israel isn't allowing Palestinians back into the West Bank or Gaza. As for the family members in the West Bank- they have lost their main source of income the olive and date orchards to Israeli settlement expansion. They are living 25 plus people to a house in the same village. None of the houses are more than a single floor; and none have more than 4 bedrooms. I would go insane having 25 people living in my 3 floor, fully finished basement, 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house. Fortunately their great great grandmother passed away recently she was 102 (I think. I will have to check with them). She kept the family together; and was the force that kept her sons out of the PA and militia groups. Now that she is gone- and the family has no more land it can lose- I am sure most of the men have joined up to fight for what is left. I expect them to suffer the same fate as those in Gaza.
I am spent. It is different when it is someone you know on the receiving end. When I was in college I belonged to a Palestinian charity group with my friend that worked on getting aid packages into the West Bank and Gaza- this was in the 1990's. Trying to jump through the every changing restrictions on what would be accepted. They one time confiscated US jeans in adult and children sizes because they said it could be cut up into bandages. Denim bandages? At least come up with something original like cut up into rags for Molotov cocktails. His family were selling the jeans to get other goods./medicines that they needed on the Black Market. Goods Israel wouldn't allow in. That is the type of stupidity and evil we were dealing with.
I was supposed to visit his family in the West Bank. Had my passport, plane ticket, accommodations, and Israeli permission all set. About 1 month before departing the great, great, grand mother sent me a letter in English (must have cost her a small fortune to get someone to translate and write it) not to come. Palestinian militias were taking foreign hostages; and she couldn't guarantee my safety. She said her own family members might turn me over to them in return for money. I canceled my plans- and my friend went by himself. Put a rift in our friendship that I found out after he died never mended. After that I dropped out of the charity; and ended correspondence with his family in the West Bank and Gaza.
It is over for the Palestinians. I am now concentrating on doing what little I can to aid the nurse; and his other family members that might be acceptable for asylum in the US from the West Bank. The families lawyers have forms they have written and pressed for all friends of the family to sign and send to Congress critters, the President, and Secretary of State. I doubt they will do much good. But it is better than doing nothing.
Since I am an atheist I will let those that believe offer their thoughts and prayers. Unfortunately there is no god to fix it. If there was there never would have been a holocaust; or any other genocide in the history of mankind.