LONDON: Israeli settlers and military forces set 900 fires targeting Palestinian homes, property, vehicles and facilities between the start of 2023 and July 10, 2026, according to a Palestinian commission that monitors settlement activity and Israeli military measures.
Israeli settlers were responsible for 799 of the incidents, or 88.8 percent, while the Israeli military was linked to 101 fires, or 11.2 percent, the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said in an analytical assessment.
The commission described settler arson as a prominent tool used against Palestinians, saying the incidents were part of a broader pattern affecting residents’ security, property and livelihoods.
The number of documented fires rose each year during the period, from 217 in 2023 to 264 in 2024 and 307 in 2025. The commission recorded another 112 fires through July 10 of this year.
More than three-fifths of the incidents — 552 fires, or 61.3 percent of the total — occurred in the northern and central West Bank governorates of Nablus and Ramallah and Al-Bireh, the report said.
The concentration of attacks in those areas, combined with the year-on-year increase, pointed to what the commission described as an organized and systematic campaign against Palestinian communities.
The reported fires come amid a broader escalation of Israeli military operations, settler violence and restrictions on Palestinian movement in the occupied West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023, when Israel launched its war in Gaza after a Hamas-led attack.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has also reported an increase in settler attacks causing casualties or property damage since January 2023, particularly in Bedouin and herding communities in Area C, the roughly 60 percent of the West Bank that remains under full Israeli control.
By the end of July 2026, OCHA had documented more than 1,380 such incidents during the year, an average of about 6.6 a day, affecting more than 250 Palestinian communities.
Settler-related killings also increased in 2026, according to OCHA. The agency recorded 18 Palestinians killed in settler attacks through July 20, surpassing the 17 recorded during all of 2025. Israeli forces have been responsible for most Palestinian killings in the West Bank, according to UN figures.
