The other mass displacement: while eyes are on Gaza, settlers advance on West Bank herders
Nearly 2,000 Palestinians displaced amid settler violence since 2022; 43% since 7 October 2023
1 November, 2023
Shortly after armed Israeli settlers threatened to kill them if they did not leave, 24 Palestinian households totaling 141 people, half of whom are children, were displaced from Khirbat Zanuta in the southern West Bank. On 28 October 2023, the families dismantled about 50 residential and animal structures and vacated the area with their 5,000 livestock. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has previously documented settler attacks in this community, most recently on 12, 21 and 26 October. About two thirds of the families that comprised this community are now displaced.
“On 26 October, settlers attacked us, destroying our homes, water tanks, solar panels, and cars,” said 43-year-old Abu Khaled from Khirbet Zanuta. “I felt the presence of death so tangibly as if I saw it with my own eyes. I was torn between staying in or leaving the place I love, where I belong, where I may die. On 28 October, I made the hardest decision in my life: to leave Zanuta and leave everything behind, as memories. I did this to protect my children.”
These experiences are not unique to Khirbat Zanuta. In 15 herding communities across the West Bank, at least 98 households comprising 828 people, including 313 children, have been displaced amid settler violence or increased movement restrictions since 7 October. That was the day of Hamas’ attack in Israel, where Palestinians from Gaza killed an estimated 1,400 people, injuring others and taking hostages. Since then, Israeli settler violence has increased significantly, from an already high average of three incidents per day thus far in 2023 to a current average of seven per day.
Read the full report: The other mass displacement: while eyes are on Gaza, settlers advance on West Bank herders
One of the families displaced from Al Ganoub in October 2023. ”We’ve been intimidated by settlers in our home many times. Since the attack against my husband, my little daughter is traumatized. Every time she hears a car passing or sees someone she doesn’t recognize; she’s scared that they might be settlers.“ Wa’ad, 26, mother of six whose husband was run over by settlers in 2021, Al Ganoub. The quote and pictures are from before the displacement. Photo by OCHA/Manal Massalha, 2022
“They prevent us from grazing our sheep.” Mohamad Abu Seif (Abu Khalid), 90, speaks to an OCHA staff about how settlers have intensified their pressures on his community to leave after 7 October.