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UN report Israel’s settlement expansion drives mass displacement in West Bank
“The Israeli government has accelerated unlawful settlement expansion and annexation of large parts of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem forcibly displacing over 36,000 Palestinians amid increasing violence by Israeli security forces and settlers ,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said at the bi-weekly briefing in Geneva.
These are findings of a new report by UN Human Rights, covering the 12-month period up to 31 October 2025. The report documents increasing incidents of settler violence resulting in killings, injuries and property damage, as well as relentless harassment, intimidation, and destruction of Palestinian homes and farmland.
“Settler violence continued in a coordinated, strategic and largely unchallenged manner, with Israeli authorities playing the central role in directing, participating in or enabling this conduct. Longstanding and pervasive impunity is facilitating and encouraging violence against and harassment of Palestinians,” the spokesperson stated.
“The report says the displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, which coincides with the extensive displacement in Gaza, at the hands of the Israeli military, appears to indicate a concerted Israeli policy of mass forcible transfer throughout the occupied territory, aimed at permanent displacement, raising concerns of ethnic cleansing,” he said.
Al Kheetan added: “The unlawful transfer of protected people is a war crime. The report notes that such acts potentially incur the individual criminal responsibility of officials engaged in them, and under certain circumstances, may also amount to a crime against humanity.”
“We call on Israel to immediately and completely cease and reverse the establishment and expansion of settlements. We also call for the evacuation all settlers, and an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territory. Israel must also enable the return of displaced Palestinians, and stop land confiscation, forced evictions and house demolitions,” Al Kheetan said.
Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights office in the occupied Palestinian territory made the following remarks:
“Since the end of the period covered by this report, the pace of the concerted efforts by the Israeli government to seize as much Palestinian land as possible, with as few Palestinians in it as possible, is only becoming more relentless. To this end, Palestinians are pushed out of their homes and off their lands every day, to make room for more expansion of illegal settlements,” he said.
“Israeli senior officials’ statements point to a policy to thwart Palestinian statehood and to do maximum, irreversible damage to Palestinians’ right to self-determination,” Sunghay stated.
The head of the UN Human Rights office in the occupied Palestinian territory details two points. First an enabling policy and legislative environment continues to facilitate settlement expansion. In February 2026, the Israeli cabinet adopted decisions that will further extend Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, allow more Israeli land seizures, and allow settlers to purchase land from Palestinians in an environment where such transactions cannot be considered voluntary. Second, Palestinians live with even more violence, restrictions and discrimination than they did just four months ago at the end of the reporting period
Since the beginning of 2026, Israeli settlers have killed seven Palestinians across the West Bank — a significantly increased rate compared to the eight Palestinians killed by settlers in all of 2025.
“Since the start of the conflict in the region on 28 February, the situation has become worse. Israeli security forces have continued to kill Palestinians with impunity, including a killing of an 19 year old this morning and an incident last Sunday when they opened fire on a car in Tubas and killed two parents with their two sons aged five and six,” Sunghay said.
According to the report Israeli authorities have tightened the already heavy, discriminatory closures and movement restrictions across the West Bank, tearing communities apart and impeding Palestinians’ access to healthcare, livelihoods, education, and basic services.
“Over the weekend, we received harrowing accounts from the residents of one of the last standing communities there, Khirbet Humsa. According to our monitoring, dozens of settlers attacked the community and assaulted Palestinian men and women in front of their children, stole livestock, and apparently sexually assaulted a young man in a horrifying manner,” he said.
The report states that this violence is clearing Palestinians from the area while a new separation barrier is being constructed that will close this part of the northern Jordan Valley to Palestinians entirely.
Settlement expansion is also accelerating. Last December, Israeli authorities approved 19 new settlements. This includes settlements in the northern West Bank where, last year, Israeli security forces had expelled at least 32,000 Palestinians who remain displaced to this day, the report states.
In January 2026, Israeli authorities issued tenders for the construction of thousands of settlement units in the so-called E1 area. This expansion will likely sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and disrupt territorial continuity in the West Bank between north and south.
Palestinians in Gaza are also still living under conditions of precarity and dehumanization, even five months after the ceasefire, Sunghay added.
The report states that 671 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military operations since this ceasefire in Gaza, both in the vicinity of Israeli forces’ deployment lines, and far away in homes, tents, and on the streets. Thousands remain missing, buried under rubble or forcibly disappeared. The entry and flow of humanitarian aid is not reliable as quantities change, many essential goods are still blocked, and crossings are not dependably open.
“The events of the past two and a half years in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have not only caused one of the worst humanitarian disasters of our lifetimes but also presented a severe human rights crisis, with the risk of further reverberations across the region and the world. This is a time to strengthen respect for human rights and humanitarian law. Ending the disturbing trends of violations, occupation and impunity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is a good place to start,” Ajith Sunghay concluded.
In Geneva:
For more information and media requests, please contact:
In Geneva
Ravina Shamdasani: +41 22 917 9169 / ravina.shamdasani@un.org
Jeremy Laurence: +41 22 917 9383 / jeremy.laurence@un.org
Thameen Al-Kheetan: + 41 22 917 4232 / thameen.alkheetan@un.org
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STORY: UN report: Israel’s settlement expansion drives mass displacement in West Bank
TRT: 04:45
SOURCE: OHCHR /UNOG
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: English/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 17 March 2026, Geneva, Switzerland
SHOTLIST
- SOUNDBITE (English)— Thameen Al-Kheetan UN Human Rights spokesperson (OHCHR): “The Israeli government has accelerated unlawful settlement expansion and annexation of large parts of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem forcibly displacing over 36,000 Palestinians amid increasing violence by Israeli security forces and settlers.”
- Cutaway: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)— Thameen Al-Kheetan UN Human Rights spokesperson (OHCHR):“Settler violence continued in a coordinated, strategic and largely unchallenged manner, with Israeli authorities playing the central role in directing, participating in or enabling this conduct. Longstanding and pervasive impunity is facilitating and encouraging violence against and harassment of Palestinians.”
- Cutaway: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)— Thameen Al-Kheetan UN Human Rights spokesperson (OHCHR): “The report says the displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, which coincides with the extensive displacement in Gaza, at the hands of the Israeli military, appears to indicate a concerted Israeli policy of mass forcible transfer throughout the occupied territory, aimed at permanent displacement, raising concerns of ethnic cleansing.”
- Cutaway: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)— Thameen Al-Kheetan UN Human Rights spokesperson (OHCHR): “The unlawful transfer of protected people is a war crime. The report notes that such acts potentially incur the individual criminal responsibility of officials engaged in them, and under certain circumstances, may also amount to a crime against humanity.”
- Cutaway: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)— Thameen Al-Kheetan UN Human Rights spokesperson (OHCHR): “We call on Israel to immediately and completely cease and reverse the establishment and expansion of settlements. We also call for the evacuation all settlers, and an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territory. Israel must also enable the return of displaced Palestinians, and stop land confiscation, forced evictions and house demolitions.”
- SOUNDBITE (English)— Ajith Sunghay, Head of the UN Human Rights Office for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OHCHR): “Since the end of the period covered by this report, the pace of the concerted efforts by the Israeli government to seize as much Palestinian land as possible, with as few Palestinians in it as possible, is only becoming more relentless. To this end, Palestinians are pushed out of their homes and off their lands every day, to make room for more expansion of illegal settlements.”
- Cutaway: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)—Ajith Sunghay, Head of the UN Human Rights Office for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OHCHR): “Israeli senior officials’ statements point to a policy to thwart Palestinian statehood and to do maximum, irreversible damage to Palestinians’ right to self-determination.”
- Cutaway: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)— Ajith Sunghay, Head of the UN Human Rights Office for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OHCHR): “Since the start of the conflict in the region on 28 February, the situation has become worse. Israeli security forces have continued to kill Palestinians with impunity, including a killing of an 19 year old this morning and an incident last Sunday when they opened fire on a car in Tubas and killed two parents with their two sons aged five and six.”
- Cutaway: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)— Ajith Sunghay, Head of the UN Human Rights Office for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “Over the weekend, we received harrowing accounts from the residents of one of the last standing communities there, Khirbet Humsa. According to our monitoring, dozens of settlers attacked the community and assaulted Palestinian men and women in front of their children, stole livestock, and apparently sexually assaulted a young man in a horrifying manner.”
- Cutaway: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)—Ajith Sunghay, Head of the UN Human Rights Office for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “The events of the past two and a half years in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have not only caused one of the worst humanitarian disasters of our lifetimes but also presented a severe human rights crisis, with the risk of further reverberations across the region and the world. This is a time to strengthen respect for human rights and humanitarian law. Ending the disturbing trends of violations, occupation and impunity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is a good place to start.”
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Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
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