Palestinians take night watches to shield homes from settler assaults
Palestinians in the West Bank have begun rotating night‑time guard shifts to defend their villages from increasingly frequent settler attacks. In the village of al‑Mughayyir, east of Ramallah, 32‑year‑old Abdul Rahman Jabr’s life was altered more than a year ago when Israeli settlers targeted his home. After the assault, he erected barbed wire and an iron fence in an effort to deter future raids.
Jabr built the house in early 2023, just before his marriage. It sits on the village’s outskirts, an area long plagued by settler violence. He now lives there with his wife and their two‑year‑old daughter, but attacks on his property and those of his neighbours have grown more intense over the past year. In April 2024 settlers set his car ablaze and smashed his windows with stones. In the last week alone, his home was approached seven times, forcing him to miss work in order to stay and protect his family.
“I thought about my wife and child. How could I protect them from the settlers when there is no protection for us? I began surrounding the house with barbed wire and an iron fence. This isn’t a sufficient measure, but it’s the only thing I can do on my own,” Jabr told Al Jazeera. “All the neighbouring households have had to install these fences to protect themselves. We’ve made countless appeals, but no one listens, so we had to take this step. At the very least, it has helped keep their livestock away from our yards.”
Jabr’s experience reflects a broader surge in settler activity across the occupied West Bank since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023. The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, part of the PLO, recorded 14,742 attacks on Palestinians, their land or property between 7 October 2023 and 4 October 2026. In the first seven months of 2026 alone, the commission logged 4,113 incidents – a 63 percent rise compared with the same period in 2025 – ranging from assaults on individuals to the vandalism of orchards. This month, a wave of attacks targeted Palestinian olive farmers during harvest.
In the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, a group of young men have organized to repel settler raids. Basel Awad, a pseudonym used for security reasons, told Al Jazeera that the village’s unofficial guard committee gathers 20 to 30 unarmed volunteers each night at points that settlers have used as staging areas. The Israeli army has responded by arresting six members of the guard and injuring at least ten others, in what appears to be an effort to dismantle the neighbourhood watch. “We had set up a tent in the Jabal al‑Batin area, which is frequently targeted by attacks. Soldiers arrived last winter and fired tear‑gas canisters inside. We all suffered from suffocation, and then they demolished the tent and confiscated it,” Basel said.
Despite the danger, many Palestinians refuse to abandon their homes or land. Nasr Radwan, 53, is a landowner in the village of Beitillu, west of Ramallah, whose property – 1,500 dunums that contain more than 100 springs – is repeatedly raided by settlers. He and his brothers have been beaten on several occasions, yet they continue to work the land daily. In June, settlers established an outpost near his fields that serves as a base for attacks on his crops and family. “The most recent attack took place last Saturday. We were on our land harvesting olives when settlers attacked us, smashed the windows of our vehicles and beat my brother. Even so, we continue to go there every day,” he explained.
For three years settlers have blocked the access road to the family’s land, forcing Radwan’s relatives to walk five kilometres on foot to reach their fields. “We know that being on our land means facing constant attacks. It could even cost us our lives. But we also know that if we abandon it, it will be lost forever,” he said. “This is not just land or a source of livelihood; it is our soul, our memory and our very life.”
The lack of legal protection leaves West Bank villages exposed to ongoing assaults with little accountability for perpetrators. Human Rights Watch in August reported that Israeli authorities have failed to prosecute settlers for acts of vi