Palestinians Form Night Patrols to Defend West Bank Villages Against Settler Attacks

The life of Abdul Rahman Jabr, 32, changed more than a year ago, when his home in the village of al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, became a target of attacks by Israeli settlers. After the incident, he erected barbed-wire fencing around his house to keep further attacks at bay.

The home he built in early 2023, before his marriage, sits on the edge of the village — an area with a long history of settler violence. He now lives there with his wife and two-year-old daughter, but attacks on his home and those of his neighbors have mounted over the past year.

Settlers burned his car in April 2024 and smashed his windows with stones. He has lost count of how many times his house has been targeted. In the past week alone, settlers approached his land seven times, forcing him to take time off work to stay home and protect his wife and children.

"I think about my wife and daughter. How can I protect them when we have no protection? I started fencing the house with barbed wire and iron barriers. It isn't enough, but it's the only thing I can do myself," he said.

Every neighboring household has had to put up similar fencing to defend itself, he said. "We have appealed more times than I can count, but no one listened, so we had to take this step. At least it keeps their livestock out of our yard."

Night patrols

Abdul Rahman's experience is far from isolated. It is part of a rapid surge in settler activity across the West Bank since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.

According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), settlers carried out 14,742 attacks on Palestinians, their land and their property between October 7, 2023, and October 4, 2026.

In the first seven months of 2026 alone, the commission recorded 4,113 incidents, ranging from physical assaults to the destruction of orchards — a 63 percent increase over the same period in 2025. This month has seen a wave of attacks on Palestinian farmers as they harvest olives.

Against that backdrop, Palestinians have begun organizing forces to guard their families and homes.

In the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, a group of young Palestinian men has pushed back repeated settler attacks in recent months. Basel Awad (a pseudonym used for security reasons) said the village protection committee he belongs to operates informally and exists to protect residents' homes.

Every night, between 20 and 30 unarmed men gather at key positions — the spots settlers have used as staging grounds for raids on Sinjil. The cost has been high: Israeli forces have arrested six members of the protection team and wounded at least 10, in what is seen as an effort to dismantle the night patrol.

"We set up a tent in the Jabal al-Batin area, which is frequently attacked. Last winter, soldiers came and fired tear gas inside. We were all choking, then they demolished and confiscated the tent," Basel said.

Defending the community

Despite the danger, Palestinians refuse to abandon their homes and let their land fall into settler hands.

Nasr Radwan, 53, is one of the landowners in the village of Beitillu, west of Ramallah, which is frequently raided by settlers. The land belonging to Nasr, his brothers and relatives covers 1,500 dunums (about 150 hectares) and includes more than 100 springs. He has been beaten by settlers many times, but he and his brothers remain determined to be on the land every day.

Last June, he said, settlers set up an outpost near the family's land and used it as a base to attack crops and assault his relatives. "The latest incident was last Saturday. We were harvesting olives on our land when we were attacked, the car windows were smashed and my brother was beaten. Even so, we still go there every day," he said.

Over the past three years, settlers have tried to seize the family's land, blocking the access road so that he and his relatives cannot reach it by car. Family members still make the 5-kilometer trek on foot to their property.

"We know that being on our land means facing constant attacks, and that we could even lose our lives. But we also know that if we leave, the land is lost forever. This is not just land or a livelihood — it is our soul, our memory and our very lives," Nasr said.

Violations of international law

With settler raids tolerated by the Israeli authorities, Palestinian residents have no real protection or legal recourse when they are attacked. That leaves West Bank villages facing relentless violence in which settlers cause damage, assault people and sometimes kill without punishment.

In August, Human Rights Watch reported that Israeli authorities had failed to prosecute settlers for violence against Palestinians. According to the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, as of the end of 2025, only 3 percent of the hundreds of cases recorded since 2005 had resulted in a conviction. The villages' night patrols are Palestinians' attempt to mitigate those risks.

Omar Rahhal, director of the Ramallah-based SHAMS Human Rights Center, said that Palestinians having to defend themselves against settler attacks does not absolve Israel of its legal responsibility as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention to protect civilians.

Such measures, he said, are only an improvised response to a profound imbalance of power. One illustration is the presence of Israeli soldiers while settlers attack Palestinian families and level their land.

"Impunity, the arming of settlers, budget allocations for settlements and the policies of ministers in the Israeli government are all factors that sustain the attacks and increase the number of victims," he said.