Article: published on 29 July 2026

**Published on July 29, 2026**

The sturdy, bolted gate of the Abu Alia family's compound in al-Mughayyir village withstood the assault of teenage settlers, its thin metal bars reverberating with each strike from their clubs. Yet, the verbal barbs exchanged that day freely pierced through the gate. A derogatory slur, nearly identical in both Hebrew and Arabic, was uttered with casual disdain by the Israeli youths battering the gate, and with fear and frustration by the Palestinian man just inches away on the other side, who was recording the incident on his phone.

This gate, situated at the edge of al-Mughayyir, has become a weekly flashpoint in the struggle for the occupied West Bank. Such settler attacks on Palestinian homes are a routine occurrence in villages throughout the territory.

As we arrived in al-Mughayyir that day, the confrontation at the Abu Alia compound was already underway. Clouds of tear gas, deployed by Israeli troops, billowed from the village streets. The Israeli army and border police were already moving through the area, and residents were fleeing their vehicles – soldiers, like settlers, are perceived as adversaries here. Some young men rolled rocks into the road to obstruct it, as the sound of gunshots echoed across the village.

From the hill above, the local mosque broadcast calls for assistance to the family besieged by settlers. However, navigating past Israeli soldiers has become a perilous endeavor. Residents, medical personnel, and journalists have all been shot during Israeli military operations in the West Bank. This now constitutes a typical weekend in al-Mughayyir and other West Bank villages, though it rarely garners attention beyond local news.

We spent a week in al-Mughayyir and the neighboring village of Khirbet Abu Falah to observe daily life for a single community or family. Our findings reveal the rapid shift in control over this landscape and how localized settler attacks are indicative of a broader national initiative to bring West Bank land under Israeli dominion.

Since its occupation of the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has established over 100 settlements, housing more than half a million Jews, on land Palestinians envision for a future state. Some Israeli settlers have also erected hundreds of unauthorized outposts, often beginning with a single tent or caravan on a hilltop, frequently in close proximity to Palestinian homes. Both Israel's official settlements and its outposts are deemed illegal under international law.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has characterized those perpetrating settler attacks as a small group of misguided young individuals: "150 juvenile delinquents," he has called them, or "70 teenagers from broken homes." The settlers observed smashing the Abu Alia gate that Saturday in al-Mughayyir appeared to be predominantly teenagers. However, earlier that day, a settler group had issued a social media call to "expel the enemy," including a quote from the Torah: "If you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, those you leave will become spikes in your eyes and thorns in your sides." Furthermore, behind the young faces at the gate in al-Mughayyir were older settlers, at least one of whom was armed, standing alongside Israeli soldiers not far from the house.

There is a widespread belief among Palestinians in the West Bank that Israeli soldiers provide support to settlers during these attacks. Footage filmed by the Abu Alia family during the confrontation at the gate appeared to show Israeli soldiers making no attempt to detain the settlers who attacked the Abu Alia compound or confiscate their clubs. The footage shows soldiers casually approaching the teenagers attacking the gate and making gentle gestures to guide them away. This proved ineffective, as the teenagers repeatedly returned to strike the gate with their clubs while a woman inside screamed at them to leave. The soldiers standing with them at the gate made no effort to question or detain the attackers, or even to confiscate their clubs.

Additional footage, also filmed from the Abu Alia compound, seemed to depict young settlers breaking fencing around the property, with soldiers standing a short distance away, helmets off and phones out. In one photograph, an angle-grinder or similar power tool appeared to be resting on a log behind them. We later photographed it in the hands of soldiers, then in the hands of settlers, and then with soldiers again at the Abu Alias' fence. We inquired with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) about these incidents. The IDF offered no specific explanation for the events but stated in a general response that it was investigating claims of property damage.

Rafeeq Abu Alia, a family member present in the house that day, informed me that the attack followed a familiar pattern. "First thing this morning, they came... There were four settlers and they were armed. Then more settlers came and laid siege to the house, insulting and provoking us," he recounted. "They came with the army. The soldiers entered, followed by the settlers. The army beat people inside the house." We filmed soldiers attempting to break down the Abu Alias' gate that day, with settlers standing beside them. Later, we observed workers repairing the damaged entrance. Medics informed us they had treated several Palestinians for tear gas exposure and beating injuries, and that another individual had been hospitalized with a gunshot wound.

The IDF stated that its forces were in al-Mughayyir that day, responding to reports of a confrontation between Palestinians and Israeli civilians. It indicated that soldiers had entered a house in the village to search for stone-throwing suspects, and separately, that they had detained one person participating in what it termed a "violent riot." The IDF also stated it was investigating allegations of violence by soldiers. Furthermore, it reported that masked Palestinians had used slings to hurl stones at soldiers, that its forces fired to neutralize the threat, and that "a hit was identified," meaning someone was shot. The rules of engagement for Israeli forces in the West Bank were relaxed to permit soldiers to use live fire against Palestinians throwing stones, following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, which initiated the Gaza war. Our repeated requests to film with the IDF on patrol in the West Bank this year have thus far gone unanswered.

As Israeli forces discharged live rounds, stun grenades, and tear-gas canisters into al-Mughayyir that day, we proceeded down a largely deserted road towards the Abu Alia compound to observe the situation firsthand. Two soldiers appeared meters in front of us. Our local Palestinian producer was the first to spot them. We were still filming as one raised his weapon, pointing it towards us. We ascended to a nearby roof for safety, with the army vehicle and soldiers visible directly below us. Within moments of our arrival, they gestured for us to cease filming. One raised a tear-gas launcher towards us. We retreated from the edge of the roof; he did not fire.

Access to stories like this is becoming increasingly difficult here, even for journalists with official Israeli government accreditation. Palestinian paramedics also report being routinely obstructed. An ambulance worker with the Palestinian Red Crescent informed me that while responding to a call from al-Mughayyir that week during another settler attack, Israeli soldiers confiscated his ambulance keys after instructing him to turn off the engine. "If they tell us to stay there, we have to stay and wait, regardless of the situation," he stated. "It's something we face all the time."

Al-Mughayyir is an isolated village, encircled by areas temporarily placed under full Israeli control during the Oslo peace process 30 years ago, a process that subsequently collapsed. In recent years, Israeli settlement outposts – illegal under both Israeli and international law – have proliferated around it. A member of the village council, known as Abu Waheed, told me that settlers enter al-Mughayyir daily, and that when settlers instruct soldiers to do something, the soldiers comply. "[They come] with the army, and with the cars of the army," he said. "Here and here and here. The army is the settlers, but their clothes are green." Many Israeli soldiers serving here are themselves settlers and view the West Bank as land divinely bestowed upon them. Thousands of settlers were also directly recruited into local security squads after the October 7 Hamas attacks and provided with weapons, with minimal vetting or training. Army figures indicate that most of these squads have now been disbanded following numerous reports of abuse against Palestinian residents.

None of the outposts we approached around al-Mughayyir responded to our interview requests. However, one settler in a nearby outpost recently spoke to an Israeli documentary team about his involvement in a security squad. "We are the residents, and we are carrying out a conquest here," Adar Lafair told the Kan 11 documentary team. "We're settling on land that years ago we couldn't have walked on. We wouldn't have dared to walk on. Arabs controlled this area. But today, we're here." His wife, Rivka, expressed her dream of the squads being permitted to "conquer" a nearby Palestinian village. Describing the establishment of her outpost by Israeli settlers, she stated that control of the area was seized by "a group of 17-year-old kids with no weapons, with nothing." "They simply got into fights over the land. They just showed who was in charge. And we're the ones in charge of this land," she asserted. "It shouldn't be that teenagers go up onto a hilltop and safeguard the security of the entire people of Israel by doing that. It should be the army that clears the way."

One Israeli soldier who recently served in the West Bank, requesting anonymity, told me that extremist settlers viewed him as an enemy for not supporting their attacks. "There are teenagers there who look at you with hate," he said. "There was one who told us, 'I will put a bullet in your head.'" He emphasized that it was clear the attacks were not merely the work of a few radical teenagers. "There are bodies that equip them with this ideology, with food and water, and logistical support, and also guidance on how to do this." When asked about claims by some settlers that Palestinian attacks on them go unreported, he stated that this claim did not align with the reality he had witnessed on the ground. "In the Palestinian faces, I saw only fear," he said. "I never saw any fear on any Jew that lived there. They feel there is no law. They feel that they can attack in the middle of the day, and nothing will happen."

During the week we were present, the UN recorded 45 Palestinians, including 12 children, injured by Israeli settlers in attacks across the West Bank. It reports that injuries linked to settler attacks have sharply increased to more than three per day since the beginning of this year. Settler attacks have escalated in tandem with the growth in the number of settler outposts. These outposts are officially illegal under Israeli law, yet this has not prevented Israel from supporting them with roads and electricity, or from legalizing dozens of them after their establishment. The Israeli organization Peace Now, which monitors settlements, states that at least 231 new outposts have been created under the current Israeli government. Some, utilized as settler shepherding farms, now effectively control 18% of the West Bank, according to Peace Now, displacing over 100 Palestinian communities.

At a conference of settler leaders in July, the IDF commander for the West Bank, Maj Gen Avi Bluth, stated that farm outposts "align well" with Israel's security concept, "provided that this is also reflected in operational conduct, as well as ethical conduct, and in accordance with the law." "All of this greatly strengthens security," he added. Israel's current government has thus far allocated 19 billion shekels ($6.2 billion) to expanding settlements in the West Bank and is now seeking an additional 600 million shekels ($196 million) for settlement programs, according to Peace Now. The government, which includes religious-nationalist settlers among its cabinet ministers, has also lifted a 20-year ban on Israelis settling in areas around the Palestinian city of Jenin in the far north of the territory. It is proceeding with construction on more than a dozen settlements there, as well as several new military sites, including one adjacent to the refugee camp in Jenin – marking the first instance Israel has seized land for a military site in an area placed under total Palestinian control in the Oslo Accords. Hagit Ofran from Peace Now suggests that the rapid construction in Jenin is part of a broader effort by the Israeli government to expand settlements in the West Bank before Israeli elections in October. She also states that Israel is finding ways to channel state funds to settler outposts that were illegal under Israeli law, through allocations for roads, "security needs," or the establishment of "temporary sites" in new areas designated for settlement.

In Khirbet Abu Falah, adjacent to al-Mughayyir, Brahim Hamayel, an olive farmer I had met during a previous settler attack a year ago, informed me that four new outposts had appeared nearby since then – two of them in just the previous month. He pointed out one of them on a nearby hill, built, he said, on private Palestinian land, in an area that is supposed to be administered by the Palestinian Authority. The attacks had also intensified, he noted, sometimes targeting the village itself at night. "Since we met last year, the attacks have moved from our farms to our homes," he said. "All my neighbors have been hurt one way or the other; some had their houses or cars burned down. We're putting up barbed wire for protection, as if our houses have become prisons." While we were speaking, we observed smoke rising from the village fields. We watched as settlers moved around the smoldering land. An Israeli army jeep quickly arrived, but it did not prevent the settlers from starting a second fire or from driving directly past them, back towards one of the new outposts Brahim had indicated. This road past their fields, increasingly overlooked by settler outposts, has become a perilous route for farmers here, to be traversed at speed in vehicles without stopping or dismounting. It is the only open route between Khirbet Abu Falah and al-Mughayyir. On two occasions when we drove along it, we saw an Israeli settler sitting in the empty fields.

One week after the attack in al-Mughayyir, Palestinian residents were still enduring the consequences. Seventeen-year-old Fadi Hamdallah al-Nassan, shot in the leg that day, had succumbed to his injuries. A football player with the Palestinian national youth team, he was carried through the village streets for burial. The following day, two more Palestinians were killed in another settler attack nearby. Another routine weekend in the occupied West Bank: roads closed, land seized, villages under siege, families shattered.