The office stated in a report that "attacks, threats and ongoing intimidation by settlers have led to the displacement of more than 100 Palestinian families from 5 communities across the West Bank during the past two weeks."
The report indicated that the majority of the displaced Palestinian families were from the Bedouin community of Ras Ein Al-Auja in the Jericho Governorate, noting that settler attacks disrupted farmers' access to homes, pastures and water sources, and undermined the sense of security.
He continued: “On January 19, 77 Palestinian families, comprising 375 people, including 186 children and 91 women, began dismantling their homes and moving out of the Ras Ein Al-Auja area, following an escalation of attacks, threats, and intimidation by Israeli settlers, especially during the night.”
He noted that "this displacement came after the forced displacement of 21 families consisting of 110 people, including 61 children, on January 8, following a series of settler attacks that included the physical assault and injury of an elderly man, the cutting of solar power cables, and the plowing of privately owned land."
He stressed that "more than 72,000 families of farmers and herders, which is nearly two-thirds of all agricultural families, are in urgent need of emergency agricultural assistance."
The West Bank is witnessing an unprecedented escalation in attacks by the Israeli occupation army and settlers against Palestinians, their property and livelihoods, with more than 1,107 Palestinians killed, about 11,000 injured and more than 21,000 arrested since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza in October 2023, which lasted two years.
According to estimates by the Israeli left-wing Peace Now movement, the number of settlers in the West Bank exceeds half a million, in addition to more than 250,000 in settlements built on occupied Jerusalem land.
The United Nations considers settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories illegal, warns that it undermines the chances of addressing the conflict according to the two-state solution (Palestinian and Israeli), and has been calling for years for it to stop, but to no avail.
