In the first days following the onset of Israel’s attack on Iran, Israeli settlers shot and killed six Palestinians in the West Bank. Five more Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers, including an entire family – mother, father, and their two children, aged five and seven. To the best of our knowledge, none of the shooters – most of whom are known to Israeli authorities – have been arrested.
For anyone familiar with the reality in the West Bank, these facts are hardly surprising. They reflect a trigger-happy military culture, persistent settler violence, and, above all, a consistent policy of non-enforcement when Israelis harm Palestinians.
Under international humanitarian law, the Israeli military bears the obligation to ensure public order and civil life in occupied territory, to protect the local Palestinian population, and to safeguard its rights.
Yet the Israeli military openly declares that its primary mission is to protect Israeli settlers living in the West Bank (in violation of international law). As a direct consequence of this priority, the military has, for more than 58 years, operated a regime of repression against the Palestinian population. Soldiers routinely raid Palestinian homes, restrict freedom of movement across West Bank roads, and exert direct or indirect control over Palestinians’ time and space.
This military regime is inherently coercive, and the violent acts committed by soldiers against Palestinians are, in effect, what the state expects of them. The proof lies in a policy of non-enforcement.
Violence by soldiers and settlers against Palestinians
According to data provided by the military to the human rights organization Yesh Din, between 2016 and 2024, 2,427 complaints were filed regarding offenses by soldiers against Palestinians or their property in the West Bank. Of these, only 552 investigations were opened (22.7%), and a mere 23 indictments were filed (0.9%). These figures demonstrate that military law enforcement authorities effectively provide backing for abusive soldiers to continue their violent conduct.
At the same time, the West Bank has become fertile ground for settler violence – violence carried out by Israeli civilians who take the law into their own hands. Shootings, physical assaults, arson attacks on homes and vehicles, the slaughter of livestock, and threats against Palestinians are daily occurrences.
In October 2023, with the outbreak of the war in Gaza, thousands of settlers were mobilized for reserve duty in the West Bank. Approximately 8,000 weapons were distributed to Israeli civilians living in the area, including many who were not called up for service; a significant portion of these weapons remains in settlers’ hands to this day.
As a result, settler violence – driven by nationalist, racist, and messianic ideology – is often carried out using arms supplied by the state itself. Indeed, settler violence can be understood as a direct continuation of military violence: What the state demands of individuals as soldiers, they continue to carry out as civilians through independent and unlawful initiatives. This violence is further enabled by massive government funding for settlements and outposts, as well as by a parallel policy of non-enforcement.
Perpetrators get away with violence
Data collected by Yesh Din shows that between 2005 and 2025, 93.6% of investigation files opened by the Israeli police into ideologically motivated crimes by Israelis against Palestinians in the West Bank were closed without an indictment. Moreover, since 2005, only 3% of such cases have resulted in full or partial convictions.
In other words, whether by explicit orders or the “spirit of command,” it is Israel that sends soldiers and settlers to harm Palestinians in the West Bank. State policy deliberately blurs the line between soldiers and settlers, facilitating violent actions by both military forces and civilian militias acting in pursuit of settlement interests against an unprotected Palestinian civilian population.
The rationale behind this policy is straightforward: Violence by soldiers and settlers serves to push Palestinians off their land, thereby advancing Israel’s objective of expanding control over territory in the West Bank and annexing it without its inhabitants.
Since the war with Iran began, more than 10 incidents of settler violence have been documented daily in the West Bank, including large-scale pogroms involving hundreds of participants. These mass attacks – some organized through public calls to target Palestinians – have been met with minimal law enforcement response, whether in advance preparation, real-time intervention, or post hoc accountability.
Such events occur because settlers – some armed with state-issued weapons and others accompanied by soldiers who protect them – know that the Israeli system stands behind them, supports their actions, and effectively grants them immunity from prosecution.
Israel promotes violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and reaps its benefits. Military violence, settler attacks, and the policy of impunity for perpetrators are not separate phenomena but rather different arms of the same deliberate and well-oiled state mechanism.
Since October 2023, more than 150 new outposts have been established in the West Bank, while dozens of older ones have been retroactively legalized and recognized by the Israeli government as lawful communities. In many cases, the land on which these outposts were built was first “cleared” of Palestinians who had lived on or cultivated it – often through violence.
Thus, the path toward the annexation of the West Bank, to which Israel aspires, is paved through a systematic policy of supporting violence – providing protection, funding, and weapons for acts that, day after day, harm Palestinians, dispossess them of their land, and amount to ethnic cleansing.
The writer is head of research at Yesh Din.