Amid unchecked impunity, accelerating settlement expansion and armament, and mounting crackdowns on Palestinians since October 2023, settler violence has reached an all-time high. A June 2026 United Nations Commission of Inquiry found that settler attacks had risen by 130 percent since 2023. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded more than 1,330 attacks causing casualties or property damage across roughly 250 Palestinian communities in the first seven months of 2026, with attacks now occurring at a rate of around six per day. Around 880 Palestinians have been injured in the context of settler attacks this year, while eighteen have been killed — already surpassing the seventeen fatalities recorded throughout the full year of 2025.
Yet these figures capture only documented incidents. Much of the everyday violence shaping Palestinian life in the West Bank never enters official statistics. A 2026 report by Israeli settlement-monitoring groups Kerem Navot and Peace Now found that the vast majority of incidents, ranging from harassment and threats to physical violence, are never documented or counted by any authority. For communities living alongside expanding outposts, this intimidation and constant threats of attack have become part of daily life, and the recorded figures offer only a limited reflection of the reality they face.
“They do these attacks on the pretext of land defense,” Mohammad Hurani, an At-Tuwani resident and neighbor of Ruqayya, told us. “Every twenty-four hours something happens, and if something doesn’t happen, the people remain on edge.” During the July 19 attack on At-Tuwani, settlers attempted to set Mohammad’s house on fire and spray-painted the Hebrew word for “revenge” on an exterior wall. “We tried to defend ourselves, but they outnumbered us ten to one, so we couldn’t do much.”
Hurani explains that there has been a severe increase not only in the frequency of attacks but also in their intensity. Prior to October 2023, “settlers used to come in groups of three or four but now come in mobs of several dozen.” In documented cases, the Israeli military has protected settlers during attacks, joined them in raiding villages, or arrived at the scene only after the settlers have fled, as documented by various Israeli and international human rights groups. In At-Tuwani, Israeli military forces arrived approximately forty minutes after the settlers left, according to Mohammad. “[The military] began yelling, ‘You don’t belong here,’” he recalls. “Without taking any statements from us, they proceeded to Havat Ma’on to collect statements from the Israelis.”
OCHA estimates that 56 percent of total Palestinian injuries in the West Bank this year occurred in the context of settler attacks. Over 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by settlers and Israeli forces since 2023, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Almost all perpetrators walk free. But the true cost of these attacks cannot be measured in numbers.
Following the attack in At-Tuwani, Ruqayya was transferred to Yatta Public Hospital, where despite doctors finding that the fetus had a weak heartbeat, she was discharged after an hour without treatment. Public hospitals across the West Bank have been operating under severe strain as the Israeli government continues to withhold over $5 billion worth of tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority, which would otherwise pay public sector employees and keep hospitals running, according to Deutsche Welle.
Suffering from emotional trauma and painful cramping through the following day, Ruqayya was brought to a private hospital in Yatta for testing.
At 5 p.m. on July 20, the fetus was pronounced dead.
“I feel I am not alive,” says Ruqayya. “He left before he could see the good things in this world, before we could even see him. Now he is gone.”
The attacks leave communities in a permanent state of vigilance. Ruqayya’s daughters still sleep in a room with no protective barriers, leaving her constantly worried about future attacks. “The sound of broken glass is still ringing in my ears. I’m afraid for my daughters — I can’t sleep.”
Yet in At-Tuwani, as across Masafer Yatta, fear has not erased resistance. Residents continue to rebuild damaged homes, accompany shepherds and farmers to their land, document attacks, and support families targeted by settlers. In communities where violence and intimidation aim not only to injure individuals but to drive Palestinians from their homes, remaining on the land has become an act of resistance.