‘A systematic campaign of violence and terror,” says Al-Baydar Organization, as illegal Israeli settlers continue to drive out Palestinian communities under military protection
At least 50 Palestinian Bedouin families were forcibly displaced from their homes in the occupied eastern West Bank due to repeated attacks by illegal Israeli settlers, a Palestinian rights group said on Friday.
In a statement, Hassan Mleihat, director of Al-Baydar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights, said the families were forced to flee their encampment in the Arab Al-Mleihat Bedouin community following a surge in illegal Israeli settlers' violence.
“After three years of resisting the illegal settlers and occupation forces without any support, the residents were ultimately forced to leave,” Mleihat said.
He added that illegal settlers have recently erected several unauthorized outposts in the area, including one directly in front of the Bedouin community.
According to Mleihat, illegal settlers held a celebratory gathering after the families were driven out before erecting another tent on the site Friday morning.
“These outposts have become centers of constant aggression and daily terror,” he said, citing attacks on homes and livestock, destruction of tents, poisoning of animals, and restriction of movement through control of roads and entry points.
The group also accused the Israeli military of direct complicity. “The occupation army protects settlers, not Palestinian civilians,” the official said.
Mu'ayya Sha'ban, head of the Palestinian government's Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, said the displacement is part of a “broader colonial plan” promoted by Israel's current government.
He told the Palestinian news agency Wafa that the armed illegal settlers had driven out the families “under the full protection of the Israeli army,” warning that such forced evacuations are rapidly emptying Bedouin communities across the occupied West Bank.
Since the start of Israel's war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli forces and illegal settlers have escalated violence across the West Bank.
According to Palestinian officials, around 30 Bedouin communities have been forcibly displaced during this period alone.
Since then, at least 989 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) last July declared Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
