Brussels/PNN/
In a joint statement, missions representing countries including Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, Ireland, Finland, France, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Switzerland denounced Israel's “settler terrorism” and expressed shock over recent killings of Palestinians.
They said attacks aimed at seizing land and forcing residents from their homes must stop, urging Israeli authorities to hold perpetrators accountable and uphold their obligations under international law.
The statement comes amid rising violence and displacement across the territory.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), more than 36,000 Palestinians were displaced in the year to October 2025 as settlement expansion and settler violence intensified.
UN officials say the increase in attacks, demolitions, and land seizures has created a “coercive environment” pushing Palestinians from their homes. The rights office documented 1,732 incidents of settler violence involving casualties or property damage during that period, up from 1,400 a year earlier.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned the trend risks further entrenching displacement and undermining the prospects of a viable Palestinian state. The office also said violence has become increasingly systematic, with Israeli authorities at times enabling or participating in such acts, contributing to a climate of impunity.
Human rights groups and eyewitness accounts point to a sharp escalation on the ground. In one incident reported by Reuters in mid-March, a Palestinian man from the Bedouin community of Humsah was sexually assaulted, beaten, and paraded naked during a raid by settlers, according to witnesses.
Rights groups say attacks—including arson, beatings, and property destruction—have become near-daily in parts of the West Bank, particularly in vulnerable communities such as the Jordan Valley.
Israeli rights group Yesh Din said that by the end of 2025, only about two percent of the hundreds of cases it documented since October 2023 had led to indictments.
The UN rights office said the scale and pattern of displacement, combined with settlement expansion, could amount to forcible transfer in violation of international law. It cited the approval of tens of thousands of new settlement housing units and the establishment of dozens of new outposts, including in areas previously under Palestinian administrative control.
Bedouin communities east of occupied Jerusalem face heightened risk of displacement as settlements expand, the report said. UN officials have called on Israel to halt settlement activity, end violence against Palestinians, and allow displaced communities to return.
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has been under Israeli occupation since 1967. Under international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, an occupying power is prohibited from transferring its civilian population into occupied territory.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, a position reaffirmed in UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which calls for a halt to settlement expansion.
