LONDON: An escalating campaign of “ethnic cleansing” is displacing growing numbers of Palestinians from their communities across the occupied West Bank, a human rights group based in Israel warned on Wednesday.
B’Tselem said Israeli settlers recently established an unauthorized outpost in the yards of two Palestinian homes on the outskirts of Qusra, a town near Nablus in the northern West Bank, with the aim of forcing out the families living there and taking over their properties.
The Israeli military failed to take any action to remove the settlers or protect the Palestinian families, according to B’Tselem. The army did not immediately comment on the incident, the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Yuli Novak, the executive director of B’Tselem, said the events in Qusra were not an isolated episode but part of a broader pattern. She accused settler groups, backed by the Israeli army, of intensifying their attacks on Palestinian towns and villages, seizing land, attacking homes and displacing families.
“Israeli ethnic cleansing in the West Bank is accelerating and expanding in full view of everyone,” she added.
B’Tselem said the Israeli military last month enabled efforts by settlers to force members of the Tubasi family from their homes in the nearby village of Jalud after a siege and repeated attacks. The settlers took over the properties, the organization said. Similar patterns are evident in other Palestinian communities, it added, including Ein Sinya, Turmusaya, Beita and Abu Falah.
Since Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, 64 Palestinian communities in the West Bank have been fully displaced and 15 partially displaced, B’Tselem said. More than 4,800 Palestinians, including more than 2,300 children, have been affected by this, the group said.
According to UN figures, 76 Palestinians, including 18 children, have been killed in the West Bank so far this year by Israeli forces or settlers. During the same period, three Israelis, including one civilian, were killed during confrontations with Palestinians and by an alleged ramming attack.
UN figures for displacements are higher than those from B’Tselem; the UN said 127 Palestinian communities in the West Bank have experienced full or partial displacements since January 2023, including 47 that were entirely displaced, affecting more than 6,390 people. In 2026 alone, about 3,800 Palestinians, nearly half of them children, have been displaced because of settler violence, demolitions or evictions, according to the UN data.
