Israeli settlers drive out Palestinian Bedouin community in West Bank
Dozens of families were displaced from the Ayn Ayoub area on Tuesday in response to a campaign of intimidation and violence carried out by Israeli settlers.
The New Arab Staff 12 August, 2025
Dozens of families were displaced from the Ayn Ayoub area on Tuesday in response to a campaign of intimidation and violence carried out by Israeli settlers.
The New Arab Staff 12 August, 2025
Palestinian women sit after Israeli forces demolished a house in a village west of Hebron on 12 May 2025. [Getty]
A Palestinian Bedouin community has been forced to abandon their land in the occupied West Bank following repeated attacks by Israeli settlers, according to a local rights monitor.
Al-Baydar Organisation for the Defence of Bedouin Rights said that 30 families were displaced from the Ayn Ayoub area northwest of Ramallah on Tuesday in response to a campaign of intimidation and violence carried out by settlers.
Settlers, who are mostly of Western origin, set fire to homes, poisoned livestock and harassed women and children in a campaign carried out under protection by the Israeli military, the organisation said.
The community, members of the Jahalin tribe, were seen on Tuesday morning fleeing the land on which they had lived for more than four decades.
Settlers have already begun establishing a new outpost on the land, Al-Baydar said.
The Israeli military had on Sunday evening declared Ayn Ayoub a closed military zone and prevented non-residents from entering the area.
"This displacement policy not only constitutes a blatant violation of Palestinian basic rights to housing and movement but also forms part of a broader and deeper plan to completely alter the demographic and geographic reality of the area by imposing new facts on the ground," the organisation said in a statement.
It called on the international community to act immediately to force Israel to end the forced displacement of Palestinians and the expansion of illegal settlements.
Settler violence in the occupied territory has soared under Netanyahu's far-right government, which has overseen the displacement of thousands of civilians and reacted indifferently to pogroms targeting Palestinian villages.
Almost 3,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes since the beginning of 2023, according to UN figures. More than 1,000 have been killed and 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces since 7 October 2023.
The UN's humanitarian agency has documented 740 separate incidents of settler violence against Palestinians in the first six months of 2025 alone.
The Israeli military has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians this year as part of a prolonged assault on refugee camps in the West Bank.
A Palestinian Bedouin community has been forced to abandon their land in the occupied West Bank following repeated attacks by Israeli settlers, according to a local rights monitor.
Al-Baydar Organisation for the Defence of Bedouin Rights said that 30 families were displaced from the Ayn Ayoub area northwest of Ramallah on Tuesday in response to a campaign of intimidation and violence carried out by settlers.
Settlers, who are mostly of Western origin, set fire to homes, poisoned livestock and harassed women and children in a campaign carried out under protection by the Israeli military, the organisation said.
The community, members of the Jahalin tribe, were seen on Tuesday morning fleeing the land on which they had lived for more than four decades.
Settlers have already begun establishing a new outpost on the land, Al-Baydar said.
The Israeli military had on Sunday evening declared Ayn Ayoub a closed military zone and prevented non-residents from entering the area.
"This displacement policy not only constitutes a blatant violation of Palestinian basic rights to housing and movement but also forms part of a broader and deeper plan to completely alter the demographic and geographic reality of the area by imposing new facts on the ground," the organisation said in a statement.
It called on the international community to act immediately to force Israel to end the forced displacement of Palestinians and the expansion of illegal settlements.
Settler violence in the occupied territory has soared under Netanyahu's far-right government, which has overseen the displacement of thousands of civilians and reacted indifferently to pogroms targeting Palestinian villages.
Almost 3,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes since the beginning of 2023, according to UN figures. More than 1,000 have been killed and 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces since 7 October 2023.
The UN's humanitarian agency has documented 740 separate incidents of settler violence against Palestinians in the first six months of 2025 alone.
The Israeli military has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians this year as part of a prolonged assault on refugee camps in the West Bank.