Escalating Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has been a consistent problem over the past two years, though the issue has often been overlooked amid the devastating war in Gaza. But a historic spike in Israeli settler attacks in recent weeks has raised alarm bells among world leaders, and there are growing concerns that the situation could undermine the already tenuous peace process in Gaza that’s undergirded by a 20-point plan pushed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Over 1,000 Palestinians have been injured in settler attacks so far in 2025—more than double the number injured in 2024, per the United Nations. In October alone, there were 264 settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank that resulted in casualties, property damage, or both, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. That figure marks the highest monthly tally since officials began recording such incidents in 2006.
As the Trump administration works to move the Gaza peace plan to the next phase—which already faces major hurdles—settler violence in the West Bank poses a “significant threat” to the process, especially in relation to shoring up regional support and involvement, said Dan Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel.
The White House is hoping that Arab states will play a central role in stabilizing Gaza—including by bankrolling reconstruction—but those countries will be more reluctant to play their part in executing phase two of Trump’s plan if they’re being asked to do so against a “rough backdrop” of instability in the West Bank, Shapiro said.
Shapiro, who is now a distinguished fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, emphasized that Arab states are concerned that Trump’s Gaza plan is insufficient when it comes to the role of the Palestinian Authority and offering a credible pathway to Palestinian statehood. Scenes of violence in the West Bank make participation in Trump’s plan an even tougher sell to those countries, he said.
Though Trump has broken from decades of U.S. policy by not offering unequivocal support for a two-state solution—including by controversially declaring during his first term that the United States no longer viewed Israeli settlements as illegal under international law—the president has been clear that he opposes West Bank annexation.
But Trump has been fairly quiet on the recent violence in the West Bank and has not placed significant pressure on Israel to address the situation, despite the potential for the chaos to undermine his Gaza plan. Democrats in Congress have urged Trump to take action, but he hasn’t faced such calls from Republican lawmakers, who have far greater sway with the president.
Shapiro said it’s the Israeli government’s responsibility to get a handle on the violence, but it would be “totally appropriate for the Trump administration to communicate to the Israeli government that they expect them to follow through on their own statements” regarding the recent attacks, given the ways in which the instability could derail the peace process and the White House’s other goals in the region—including advancing the Abraham Accords.
The violence in the West Bank has been especially pronounced since the Gaza cease-fire began in early October, which overlapped with the olive harvest season. It’s estimated that up to 100,000 Palestinian families in the West Bank rely on the olive harvest for a living, and violent settlers have sought to disrupt the vital tradition—which also carries immense cultural and symbolic importance—with a rising intensity and ferociousness in recent years. More than 4,000 olive trees and saplings were vandalized by settlers during this year’s harvest season, which reportedly ranks among the worst in living memory due to the combined impact of the settler attacks and drought.
Joost Hiltermann, the International Crisis Group’s special advisor for the Middle East and North Africa, traveled throughout the West Bank in October. Based on what he heard and learned during his time there, Palestinians attempting to harvest olives frequently faced intimidation and beatings from settlers. “The [Israeli] army would come and just essentially block off access to areas in support of the settlers,” he said.
This is linked to an overall escalation that began even before the current war in Gaza, Hiltermann said, but “accelerated” during the conflict. “Everybody was looking at Gaza, and the settlers in the West Bank really saw their chance to pursue their agenda,” he said.
There are roughly 500,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem. Though a lower cost of living is an incentive for some Israeli settlers in the West Bank, many are there because they believe they have a divine right to the land. The settlers involved in violent attacks, which includes extremist groups like Hilltop Youth, have “many motivations, and they have supporters in the Israeli government, particularly [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich, who share those agendas,” Shapiro said.
Violent settlers “are trying to demonstrate complete Israeli control over territory, even territory that Palestinians live on. They are trying to embarrass the Israeli government, which they don’t think is sufficiently focused on imposing Israeli sovereignty in all parts of the West Bank. They’re trying to intimidate Palestinians and get them to leave land that they want to expand their settlements onto,” Shapiro said. Some of the perpetrators of the attacks, who have aspirations of occupying, resettling, and annexing Gaza, may also view violence as a means of expressing their opposition to the cease-fire in the enclave, he added.
The uptick in violence has also seemingly been fueled, in part, by a record number of settler outposts—or groups of irregular, unauthorized structures that are illegal under Israeli law—being built near Palestinian villages. Critics say the government has not done enough to clamp down on this practice.
Recent attacks have seen settlers set fire to cars and warehouses. In one incident in mid-November, settlers defaced and set fire to a mosque in a Palestinian village. Around that time, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there’s “concern about events in the West Bank spilling over and creating an effect that could undermine what we’re doing in Gaza,” adding that the Trump administration will “do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen.”
In November, Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, decried settler violence as “terrorism.”
“Israelis can carry out terrorism, as well,” Huckabee said. “But most of these people are not actual settlers who live there—there may be some, but this is a very small number, mostly of youth, angry, and disaffected. These are thugs.” Huckabee also defended Israel’s handling of settler violence, stating that “there has been every attempt on the part” of even “the Israelis to say that those who are committing acts of terror, even if they’re Israelis, they’re going to feel the full force of the law.”
The former Arkansas governor, who is also an ordained Southern Baptist minister, does not support a two-state solution and refers to the West Bank by the biblical name for the territory—Judea and Samaria. Huckabee has said that the West Bank belongs to Israel and has been a vocal ally of settlers for years. While visiting the West Bank in 2017, Huckabee said there’s “no such thing as a settlement.”
It’s unclear whether the administration has recently taken any substantive or concrete steps to address settler violence and Israel’s handling of it. In response to a request for comment, a White House official told Foreign Policy, “A stable West Bank keeps Israel secure and is in line with this administration’s goal to achieve peace in the region.”
“Despite the narrative some media outlets and spoilers are trying to spin, the ceasefire is holding,” the official added. “As the President stated, ‘nothing is going to jeopardize [the ceasefire].’” Both Hamas and Israel have accused each other of violating the cease-fire.
In a statement to FP, a U.S. State Department official said, “Any actions, including settler violence, that threaten to destabilize the progress made toward peace are a concern. The focus remains on ensuring the ceasefire holds and advancing efforts to create a secure and better future.”
Western governments have also expressed consternation about recent events in the West Bank in relation to the Gaza peace process. France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom warned on Nov. 27 that the “massive” rise in settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the territory “risks undermining the success of the 20 Point Plan for Gaza and prospects for long-term peace and security.” And the foreign ministers of Italy and Canada raised alarm over an incident on Nov. 30 that saw citizens of their countries, who were volunteering in the West Bank, attacked and robbed by Israeli settlers.
“Settler violence in the West Bank seems to be out of control,” said Jeffrey Feltman, a veteran diplomat who formerly served as U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs and the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, among other roles. Feltman questioned why the Israeli government has not done more to stop the violence, suggesting that political calculations could be at play as the country heads into an election year.
Despite mounting international pressure for Israel to quell settler attacks, little has been done by its government in response beyond statements denouncing the violence.
For years, rights groups and international observers have accused the Israeli government of emboldening and empowering extremist settlers in the West Bank via various policies and actions—including by easing restrictions on gun ownership. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Israeli settlements there are considered illegal under international law, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has rejected that and has continuously taken steps to support the expansion of settlements in recent years.
In October, the Knesset voted to give preliminary approval on a bill that would apply Israeli sovereignty over settlements in the occupied West Bank. The move was sharply criticized by the Trump administration, with U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance condemning the vote as a “stupid political stunt” and Rubio saying that the vote was “potentially threatening” to the Gaza peace deal.
A lack of accountability is also a serious concern surrounding settler violence. The Israeli army has a documented history of standing by as settlers attack Palestinian civilians. Palestinians and rights groups have underscored that settlers involved in attacks are rarely arrested or prosecuted, with leading organizations like Amnesty International characterizing the violence as state-sanctioned.
In January, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz released all settlers held in what’s known as administrative detention—a controversial practice of detaining people without trial that’s still being used against Palestinians. The move came several months after Katz announced that settlers would no longer face administrative detention orders.
Settlers believe they can “operate with complete impunity because they see the army acting on their behalf,” Hiltermann said, but some in Israel are now realizing that they have “created a monster,” particularly given that settlers have also recently clashed with Israeli soldiers.
The rise in settler violence over the course of the war in Gaza has occurred in concert with an increase in Israeli military operations in the West Bank that have forced tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. Since Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, 1,030 Palestinians, including 233 children, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers, according to the United Nations human rights office. On Nov. 27, Israeli troops killed two Palestinian men in the West Bank city of Jenin after they appeared to surrender, in what the U.N. said appeared to be a summary execution.
When reached for comment, the Israeli Defense Ministry referred FP to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The Israeli Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement to FP, the IDF said, “The mission of the IDF is to maintain the security of all residents of the area, and to act to prevent terrorism and activities that endanger the citizens of the State of Israel.”
“In cases of law violations by Israelis, the main body responsible for handling these claims is the Israeli Police. Due to the IDF constant presence in the area, the soldiers encounter incidents of violations of the law by Israelis, some may be violent incidents or incidents directed at Palestinians or their property. In these cases, the soldiers are required to act to stop the violation and, if necessary, to delay or detain the suspects until the police arrive at the scene. IDF soldiers are instructed to act as follows,” the statement added. “In situations where soldiers fail to adhere to IDF orders, the incidents are thoroughly reviewed, and disciplinary actions are implemented accordingly.”
In response to a query on the incident in Jenin, the IDF said, “An investigation was opened by the Israel Police.”
Yuli Novak, executive director of the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, emphasized that the worsening violence in the West Bank should not be viewed as separate from the “genocide” in Gaza. “It’s the same system, the same regime, the same government, the same soldiers, actually, that were operating in Gaza, now operating in the West Bank under the same commanders,” Novak said.
“We’re talking about more than 1,000 Palestinians who got killed by Israeli forces or settlers, who are armed by the state,” Novak added. “When we think about it in relation to numbers in Gaza it might sound low, but it’s an insane number.”
Novak said that the region is in a “dangerous” moment between the continued destruction of the coastal enclave and the violence in the West Bank. Along these lines, Novak is deeply skeptical of Trump’s plan and is not counting on it achieving results—particularly given how unpredictable the U.S. president is.
“I don’t think there is a peace process,” Novak said, pointing to the lack of Palestinian voices and involvement. She expressed serious concern “that the worst is not behind us, and that the genocide can reignite any moment, but also can very easily spill over into the West Bank and inside Israel.”
