The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Wednesday that 2024 marked the worst year for Israeli settler violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since it began keeping track of such incidents nearly 20 years ago.
OCHA said it recorded about 1,400 incidents of settler violence in 2024, which amounts to nearly four attacks per day. The incidents involved “physical assaults, arson attacks, raids on Palestinian communities, and the destruction of fruit trees.”
Israeli settlers have been increasingly emboldened since the current Netanyahu government took power in December 2022. The coalition government, which includes extremist settlers, released a statement when it was first formed that said it would make West Bank settlement expansion a priority.
The genocidal war in Gaza has also served as a distraction from the situation in the West Bank, which settlers have taken advantage of. Amid the increased settler violence, the Netanyahu government has approved major Israeli land grabs in the occupied territory.
OCHA also said 2024 marked the second deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since it began recording casualties, following 2023, which was the deadliest year. Most of the dead were killed by the Israeli military.
“More than 480 Palestinians, including 91 children, have been killed across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Most of them were killed by Israeli forces,” OCHA said.
The office added that Palestinians from the West Bank “killed 35 Israelis, including three children, either in the West Bank or in Israel.”
The incoming Trump administration is expected to be incredibly supportive of Israel’s plans to continue stealing land in the West Bank. President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to serve as ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, is an outspoken proponent of Israel completely taking over the occupied territory, which he calls “Judea and Samira.”
During a visit to a West Bank settlement in 2017, Huckabee said, “I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria. There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation