Rocks smashed into Ruwan Alqam's family car outside Nablus, leaving the Palestinian-American stranded and unable to make it home. Her account is one thread in a widening pattern of settler violence across the occupied West Bank that has drawn a rare rebuke from a top American diplomat, along with fresh warnings from lawmakers in Washington.
Huckabee Says Israel Bears Responsibility
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said the Israeli government has a “responsibility” to ensure the safety of Palestinians in the West Bank, according to Al Jazeera. He added a blunt warning for anyone responsible for attacks: “Our clear message is that crime is crime, terror is terror.” The outlet also detailed Alqam's ordeal, reporting that Israeli settlers attacked their car with rocks during a trip to Nablus.
Al Jazeera's reporting ties the ambassador's comments to a broader trend: settler pogroms in the West Bank have risen sharply since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government took office in late 2022. The outlet also reports that such attacks gathered pace after the launch of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023 and have continued in recent weeks.
Fig Trees, Farmland and a Food Basket Under Threat
The destruction extends well beyond isolated roadside incidents. Israeli authorities issued notices ordering the removal of trees and vegetation along a roughly seven-kilometre stretch of the Arraba Plain, a region described in the same Al Jazeera feature as part of the West Bank's food basket. Roughly 250 trees belonging to the extended al-Uraidi family were uprooted this week on land classified as Area A, the report states.
Farmer Naim al-Sha'er lost 400 fig trees on September 1 after settlers cut through his fence, according to the same account. Arraba's mayor told the outlet that 220 dunams have been confiscated for the Emek Dotan settlement, with an additional 223 dunams bulldozed so far during the uprooting operations.
Casualty and Displacement Figures for 2026
At least 18 people have been killed and 880 more wounded during settler attacks in 2026, according to figures cited from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and reported by Middle East Eye. More than 2,300 Palestinians have also been displaced in 2026 because of settler violence and related access restrictions, the outlet reported, citing the same UN body. By comparison, OCHA documented around 830 Palestinians wounded by settlers across all of 2025, per the same live-blog account — a marker of how much the pace of harm has accelerated this year.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who represents New York and is in line to become speaker if Democrats take control of the House, has identified settler violence in the West Bank as a priority, according to DC News Now. “That cannot continue,” Jeffries said, per the outlet's reporting, which also noted he has endorsed a bill imposing economic sanctions on people involved in violence in the occupied West Bank and said the measure has broad support across the House Democratic caucus.
How OCHA Verifies the Numbers
The scale of these figures rests on a specific verification standard. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says an incident needs to be validated by at least two independent and reliable sources before it is entered into its Protection of Civilians database, with an exception for Israeli injuries that are typically based on media reports, according to OCHA. The agency notes that casualty incidents tied to the hostilities that began on October 7, 2023, are added to its page only once independently verified.
OCHA also documents demolitions across the territory, stating that these are typically carried out because of a lack of Israeli-issued permits, which it describes as nearly impossible to obtain. Separately, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights notes that its Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 is mandated to investigate alleged Israeli violations of international law, international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention in those territories, according to OHCHR.
A Shifting U.S. Sanctions Landscape
Washington's own policy toward West Bank settlers has swung sharply in recent years. By the end of President Joe Biden's term, U.S. sanctions had been imposed on 17 settlers, nine entities involved in building and expanding settlements, and six settler outposts, according to Moment Magazine. Biden had issued an executive order in February 2024 titled Imposing Certain Sanctions on Persons Undermining Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank, the outlet reported — only for Donald Trump to revoke those sanctions with his own executive order on his first day back in office in January 2025.
Moment's reporting frames the current legislative push in Congress against that backdrop, noting that as American public support for Israel has declined, lawmakers' interest in acting to curb West Bank violence is growing. DC News Now reported that the sanctions bill under discussion in the House would bar sanctioned individuals from entering the United States, and that Jeffries has suggested it would be a priority next year if Democrats gain control of the chamber.
Taken together, the reporting paints a picture of intensifying pressure on Palestinian communities in the West Bank — from rock-throwing attacks on family cars to bulldozed farmland and uprooted fig orchards — even as U.S. officials from Ambassador Huckabee to congressional leaders publicly call for accountability and protection.
