Elham Asaad Buaras
More than 200 new Israeli settler outposts have been established across the occupied West Bank since 2023, while nearly 6,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes, according to a major new report by Amnesty International.
The human rights organisation has accused the Israeli government of overseeing a coordinated campaign to expand control over Palestinian land through settlement expansion, land seizures, demolitions, and settler violence.
In its 150-page report, published on June 10, researchers spent months gathering evidence, interviewing 45 Palestinians from affected communities, as well as lawyers, activists, journalists, and representatives of Israeli and Palestinian NGOs. The organisation also examined more than 420 photographs and videos, satellite imagery, court records, and official government documents.
The findings indicate that Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities are being systematically forced out of Area C, the vast section of the West Bank that comprises around 60 per cent of the territory and remains under full Israeli control. At least 117 predominantly Bedouin and herding communities were fully or partially displaced between January 2023 and April 2026, and by the end of April, approximately 5,910 Palestinians had been uprooted from their homes, according to UN figures cited in the report.
Amnesty International Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, accused Israel of carrying out what she described as a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” in the West Bank.
“Over the past three and a half years, Israeli authorities have accelerated a state-sponsored campaign of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, uprooting, dispossessing and forcibly transferring Palestinian communities,” she said.
Researchers argue that the displacement is not the result of isolated actions by extremist settlers but forms part of what they describe as a broader state-backed strategy to strengthen Israeli control over the land while reducing the Palestinian presence.
Figures compiled by the Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now and cited in the report indicate that of the 363 outposts recorded across the occupied West Bank by April 2026, 212 — more than half — were established in just the past three years, pointing to an unprecedented surge in settlement construction. Between 2023 and 2025, the Israeli government advanced plans for 50,785 settlement housing units, while 102 new settlements had been authorised by April 2026, the highest number approved by any Israeli government, according to the report.
The report further alleges that Israeli authorities have significantly expanded state control over land in the territory. Nearly 58 per cent of Area C consists of land that has never been formally registered, and the report states that by February 2026, Israeli authorities had designated around half of that land as state property.
One of the report’s most concerning findings relates to what researchers describe as a sharp escalation in settler violence. According to UN figures cited in the report, attacks by settlers on Bedouin and herding communities resulting in casualties increased nearly sevenfold between 2020 and 2024.
Palestinians interviewed by researchers described alleged beatings, threats, attacks on homes and livestock, the destruction of water infrastructure, and severe restrictions on access to grazing land. The report claims Israeli authorities have failed to prevent such attacks and have instead fostered a climate of impunity through weak enforcement and increased support for settlers.
The report also highlights a dramatic rise in civilian gun ownership in the wake of the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023. More than 240,000 Israelis had received firearm licences by January 2026, a 15-fold increase compared with annual averages before the policy change, the report states.
These dynamics are illustrated by the case of Khirbet Zanuta, a Bedouin village in the South Hebron Hills that was once home to around 250 people. Researchers say residents endured years of intimidation and violence after a nearby settler outpost was established, eventually leading them to abandon the village in late 2023. Satellite imagery reviewed by the organisation suggests that much of the community has since been destroyed.
The report argues that policies pursued by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have transformed long-standing settlement ambitions into explicit state policy. It cites coalition agreements, increased settlement funding, legal reforms, and the transfer of powers in the West Bank from military to civilian authorities as evidence of what it describes as an annexation agenda.
Israel’s Ministry of Defense rejected the report’s conclusions, telling Amnesty that Israeli forces respond to incidents of settler violence, arrest suspects when necessary, and investigate allegations that security personnel failed to intervene.
Amnesty is now urging governments, including those of the UK, the US, and EU member states, to impose sanctions on Israeli officials, prohibit trade linked to settlements, and support investigations by the International Criminal Court into alleged crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Observers say the report is likely to intensify international scrutiny of Israel’s settlement policies as diplomatic pressure grows over the future of the West Bank and the ongoing war in Gaza.
