No Future for Palestinians Under Settler Presence
Field Report: Systematic Coordination Between Israeli Forces and Settlers to Advance Settlement Expansion in Hebron
The city of Hebron stands as a stark example of Israel’s settler-colonial crimes, driven by systemic coercion and racial discrimination. The presence of Israeli settlers—backed by the full force of the Israeli occupation forces—has imposed a brutal reality of systematic violence and military domination over the Palestinian population and their properties. Since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, it has pursued an aggressive policy, particularly intensified over the past two years, aimed at expanding settlements and establishing new ones, and seizing control over the historic heart of Hebron. These efforts serve a clear objective: to forcibly displace the city’s indigenous Palestinian residents and impose new demographic realities.
Hebron has effectively become a divided city—split by weapons and repression by the IOF and settlers—rendering daily life for Palestinians a living nightmare. Severe movement restrictions, repeated attacks, market closures, and home seizures are all tools systematically used to suffocate Palestinian presence. Within this context, any vision of a safe and viable present or future for Palestinians becomes elusive. The city is subject to a colonial-settler reality in which the Israeli state and its settlers jointly commit war crimes and grave violations of international law to ensure full domination over Palestinian land.
This report focuses on the structured methodology behind the entrenchment of the settlement project in Hebron—one built on an organized division of roles among different arms of the Israeli occupation. The process typically begins with the Israeli government declaring targeted Palestinian lands as so-called “state land,” laying the groundwork for confiscation. Then, the IOF usually carry out field operations: issuing confiscation orders, closing off areas, preventing Palestinian access, and providing settlers with military protection. In the third stage, settlers physically take over, establishing new outposts and launching repeated assaults on residents and their properties. This enforced reality coerces Palestinians into leaving, making way for settler expansion. In this way, the broader settlement plan is implemented through a combination of fabricated legal justifications, military enforcement, and violent settler practices—an orchestrated strategy aimed at full control of the land and the removal of its native inhabitants.
Over the years, the Israeli occupation has pursued systematic expansion across the West Bank, with Hebron as a central focus. However, since October 2023, Israel’s true intentions have become increasingly evident through the unveiling of plans to seize lands in Area C. These include the establishment of settler “agricultural outposts” under the pretext of “protecting state land.” The core purpose of this plan is to form aggressive settler bases targeting Palestinian rural and herding communities, violently displacing them and clearing the way for control over both public and private lands.
Field monitoring conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reveals that threats, harassment, and armed assaults by settler groups against Palestinian herders have had a significant impact. The situation has created an opportunity for any settler residing in an illegal outpost to exploit their position—backed by the protection of the IOF—to seize and plunder land.
These violations are not limited to settler actions alone. Israeli forces have issued eviction orders under various pretexts: at times citing “military purposes,” and at others invoking the creation of a buffer zone along the annexation wall. All of these actions come at the direct expense of Palestinian property rights. Moreover, the IOF has declared nature reserves, issued military confiscation orders, and launched road construction projects—steps that collectively complete Israel’s domination and the depopulation of Area C, laying the groundwork for, or effectively enacting, the annexation plan long advocated by Israeli leadership in the West Bank.
Today, settlement outposts have become the vanguard of land seizure through a systematic policy of coordination and role-sharing between the Israeli government, the army, and settlers. Key elements of this project include: settler violence, official planning and policy, government funding, and support from the Israeli military, the Civil Administration, regional settlement councils, the World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Division, and the Ministry of Settlements along with other state ministries. These entities have for years been dedicated to securing control over Palestinian land. Under this system, a settler who erects a tent or shack, brings in livestock, and maintains a presence on the land is ultimately granted legal leasing rights by Israeli authorities—often through Zionist organizations—effectively turning them into the land’s new de facto owners, at the expense of the Palestinians.
“State Land” and the Israeli Settlement Enterprise:
In 2025 alone, Israeli authorities declared 140 dunums of land in Hebron Governorate as “state land.” Portions of this land were bulldozed in the town of Halhoul, while settlers seized other parts in Khirbet Umm al-Khair near Yatta in the southern part of the governorate, to serve the interests of settler-herders, according to PCHR’s monitoring. This move reflects the ongoing expansion of the occupation’s land appropriation strategy, which exploits the legal fiction of “state land” to legitimise the seizure of Palestinian territory.
Field visits by the PCHR team confirm that most outposts have been established on land that Israel previously declared as “state land.” These locations are often situated near established settlements, allowing settlers to receive logistical support and quick military intervention in the case of Palestinian resistance. This proximity greatly facilitates the takeover of private lands by first preventing Palestinians from accessing them.
According to a previous PCHR report, settler attacks have sharply increased as part of a deliberate Israeli policy aimed at depopulating strategic areas of Hebron of their Palestinian residents. This policy forms part of a broader framework of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing, in clear violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
“The outcome is clear,” says Imad Hawwash, a field researcher at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. “A small number of settlers residing in these outposts can secure support from armed settlers and Israeli forces, enabling them to establish military watchpoints under the guise of ‘protection and security’ at more distant locations—ensuring their goal of taking over as much land as possible. What is especially alarming is the recent emergence of new outposts near areas adjacent to the annexation wall. This may signal the start of a slow, informal annexation process, as these lands become natural extensions of the areas beyond the Green Line.”
According to figures compiled by the PCHR, settlers established approximately 104 settlement outposts across the West Bank between 2023 and the end of April 2025. Of these, 12 outposts, including three in Hebron Governorate, were set up since the beginning of 2025. These outposts vary in form and declared purpose but consistently revolve around young settlers who benefit from official financial and administrative support provided by the Israeli government and several of its ministers.
Evidence of Settlement Expansion:
Numerous signs across Hebron’s neighbourhoods point to the expansion of the Israeli settlement project, driven by a coordinated triad of the Israeli government, military forces, and settlers.
According to field observations from the PCHR, settler activities have intensified in the areas of Khallet Taha, Umm Huzwa, and Khallet al-Sheikh, southwest of the town of Dura, in the southwestern Hebron Governorate. These activities include the construction of mobile homes, the opening of roads, and the ongoing prevention of Palestinian landowners from accessing their private agricultural lands. Additionally, settler shepherds have begun expanding westward into Area C—privately owned Palestinian farmland cultivated with wheat and barley. Their flocks now graze these lands, encroaching on areas near the annexation wall between the villages of Sikka and Beit ‘Awwa, west of Dura. The settlers appear intent on fully seizing the territory leading up to the wall, thereby establishing a contiguous geographic link between recently established outposts and the annexation wall.
In a testimony to the PCHR’s team, Daoud Harbiyat, a farmer from the village of Sikka west of Dura, shared:1
“I own hundreds of dunums of farmland extending west of the village all the way to the area near the annexation wall, between Beit ‘Awwa and Sikka. For nearly two years, we’ve faced repeated assaults by settlers who bring their herds into our cultivated lands, causing widespread destruction to our crops. Last year alone, we lost thousands of shekels due to these incursions, and this year the situation is just as bad—if not worse. Every attempt we make to stop the settlers has failed. We’ve been in constant contact with the Israeli police and army, but no real action is ever taken to stop the shepherds. On the contrary, we—the Palestinian landowners—are the ones forced to leave our lands, while the aggressors are left free and unaccountable. Each time we go to the police to file a complaint, they demand ownership documents, which we always provide. We’ve submitted dozens of complaints over the past two years with no tangible results. More recently, the situation has escalated. Under military protection, the settlers have reached areas near the annexation wall, effectively cutting our village off from Beit ‘Awwa. We now feel that the entire region is under threat of complete settler control. All that remains is for them to install fencing around our villages to fully encircle us. Thousands of dunams of land that are not officially declared but that we’ve cultivated for generations are, in practice, now under settler control by force.”
Through the strategy of pastoral settlement, Israeli settlers have gradually infiltrated Area B, deliberately provoking confrontations with Palestinian residents of nearby villages and towns. Palestinian presence in these areas has become increasingly dangerous, as those found there risk arrest or detention. The Israeli’s army is acting at the settlers’ behest, is prepared to provide full logistical and military support to protect settler militias. Israeli forces routinely intervene on behalf of the settlers, exerting maximum pressure on Palestinians, especially in areas adjacent to declared “state land” or settler-controlled zones in Area C.
In a testimony for Abed Issa Da’ajneh from Wadi al-Rakheem in Yatta describes the ongoing settler harassment to PCHR: 3
“While I was grazing my sheep in Wadi al-Rakheem, an area classified as part of Area B, two settlers approached us. One of them is known as ‘Sham Dov Lotzky,’ who resides in one of the outposts surrounding the nearby village of Susiya. They were accompanied by a herd of cattle and headed directly toward us. The settlers attempted to mix their herd with mine, clearly trying to assert control—perhaps even steal my flock. I began shouting at them to stop. My son was with me, and together we managed to drive their animals away. My son then sent a distress message via WhatsApp to locals in the area. About 20 minutes later, residents began to arrive and raised their voices to demand the settlers leave. At that point, an Israeli army patrol arrived. Three masked soldiers dismounted, one of whom we recognized as a settler named ‘Bitsa’el Dalia.’ The soldiers began yelling at us, pointing their weapons at close range, and ordered me and the others to sit on the ground. We were subjected to verbal abuse and insults. I tried to speak to them, explaining that the land we were on belongs to us and is located within Area B. But soldier Dalia shouted: ‘Shut up! This is Israeli land, and the army is in charge here. You are not allowed in this area. You’re not even allowed to leave your homes.”
New Settlement Outposts
According to PCHR’s monitoring, in mid-April 2025, Israeli settlers began excavation works and installed two caravans and a tent as the foundation of a new settlement outpost. This outpost was established on one of the hills located between the village of al-Burj and the towns of al-Ramadin and al-Dhahiriya. It sits on land designated as “state land” by the Israeli authorities—previously confiscated Palestinian land—adjacent to privately owned lands located within Area B.
The declared “state land” in this area covers approximately 7,000 dunums, a vast tract that strategically encircles private Palestinian farmland near the Annexation Wall. Since the establishment of the outpost, settlers have carried out systematic harassment aimed at preventing Palestinian farmers from accessing their land. This paves the way for expanding settler presence—including shepherd settlers—towards the annexation wall. The strategy relies on denying Palestinian landowners access over several years, effectively enabling confiscation, supported by military force to facilitate the new outpost’s expansion. The outpost is now extending 2 kilometres eastward toward the settlement of Eshkoliot (also referred to as “Eshtemoa”).
To the west and north of the outpost lies Area B, which, like much of the West Bank, has witnessed settler attacks involving large herds of sheep. Settlers now deliberately position themselves near Palestinian homes to provoke confrontations, creating a pretext for armed settlers and Israeli military forces to intervene under the guise of “protection.” These dynamics are systematically disrupting Palestinian life and threatening the future expansion of Palestinian residential areas.
This carefully orchestrated state of chaos and settler violence is unfolding with the full support of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has openly declared 2025 as the “Year of Sovereignty over Judea and Samaria”—Israel’s term for the occupied West Bank.4
The image shows the outpost set up by Israeli settlers in mid-April 2025, located between the village of al-Burj and the towns of al-Ramadin and al-Dhahiriya. It was established on land designated as “state land” by Israeli authorities and lies close to the Annexation Wall.
This model has become the de facto policy for all outposts established in the occupied Palestinian territories since October 2023, based on the tactic of pastoral settlement. It is increasingly used by settlers as a strategic tool to entangle Palestinians in lengthy legal battles—forcing them to file complaints and prove land ownership, which Israeli courts often do not recognise.
During this time-consuming legal process, settlers rapidly expand the outposts—adding more structures and enlarging their footprint—following a clear blueprint to impose them as facts on the ground. After several years, these outposts are often portrayed as irreversible, giving the impression that the Israeli military cannot remove or dismantle them.
This pattern has already resulted in the formal legalisation of five outposts in 2024, transforming them into permanent settlements that now control vast areas of land in Area C—an outcome closely tracked by the PCHR’s field team.
Funding of Settlement Outposts:
For many years, the funding behind the settlement outposts remained deliberately concealed and undisclosed. Under Israeli law, there is no clear regulation that defines or restricts the financial support given to these outposts, in part to avoid legal accountability for those involved in their funding. This secrecy has enabled the growth and proliferation of outposts, which are often equipped with large herds of livestock, vehicles, mobile housing units, sheds, agricultural equipment, and paved roads—all primarily serving young settlers. Such expansion has only been made possible due to substantial financial support and the involvement of official Israeli bodies that not only back these outposts but also provide legal cover for them.
According to the field monitoring of the PCHR’s researcher in Hebron Governorate, Israeli authorities have actively facilitated settler takeovers of land by offering comprehensive support. Shortly after settlers arrive at a targeted area, excavations begin, caravans are installed, roads are constructed or paved, and agricultural structures are built to house livestock. Under the current Israeli government, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has consistently supported pastoral and agricultural settlement in the West Bank.5
Salem Hathalin, a resident of Umm al-Khair in southern Hebron governorate, recounts how settlers seized and exploited his land: 6
“I live with my family of 13 people, including 3 women and 9 children—3 of them girls under the age of 18. I used to work in construction inside the Green Line before the war on Gaza broke out, but I lost my job due to the current situation. Our home consists of two sections, built from bricks and tin sheets—one section is 81 square metres, and the other is 60 square metres. Nearby is a sheep pen made of stone, fencing wire, and tarpaulin, located behind the house. I used to own a flock of 150 sheep, but I was forced to sell 130 of them due to the settlers’ takeover of the surrounding pastures. I now have only 20 sheep left. I also own a 6-dunum plot of land in Umm al-Khair, part of which my house is built on. On Thursday, 13 February 2025, a group of settlers arrived on the plot adjacent to my house, accompanied by a representative from the so-called ‘Civil Administration.’ They claimed that my home was built on ‘state land.’ Soon after, settlers installed barbed wire fencing around two dunams of land adjacent to my home. The fencing extended along the southern and eastern sides of the house and included razor-wire barriers. Later, settlers planted olive trees on the land and installed surveillance cameras mounted on an iron pole in the centre of the area. They also brought in a caravan and placed wooden benches on the site. The settlers didn’t stop there. They demolished my chicken coops and destroyed a sheep shelter I used in the summer due to the lack of available pasture. They now control the area and prevent us from grazing sheep near the village, claiming it is ‘state land.’ Meanwhile, settlers freely bring their own flocks right up to our village and even near our homes. One of them, known to us as ‘Shimon,’ leads these incursions. The settlers actively monitor our movements in and around the house via the camera mounted in the field—despite the fact that our family bathroom is located outside the home. I was forced to shut the windows facing the land and install permanent curtains due to the settlers’ continuous movement around the house. They come to the area every single day, and during their presence, I live in constant fear for my family—afraid they might attack the house. Even at night, the settlers return and blast loud music for hours, depriving us of sleep and any sense of peace. Everything the settlers are doing seems deliberately aimed at pushing us to leave our home so they can take it over.”
Settler Shepherd Attacks: A Security and Military Strategy
Since the beginning of the Israeli military aggression against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, and even before that, settler shepherds have not stopped carrying out attacks and raiding Palestinian citizens’ private lands in the West Bank in general, and particularly in Hebron, causing them significant economic losses in an attempt to force them to leave. This is after they lost natural pastures and lands that were farmed annually to provide food for their livestock, and after losing water wells, which are the lifeline of the area, located within those lands. The settlers, with the protection of the Israeli occupation forces, are trying to create a conflict over these lands with the local population. The PCHR has documented more than 15 daily attacks by settlers on lands in Hebron Governorate since the beginning of 2025, a significant and alarming increase in the scale of these assaults. Also, the team has documented dozens of testimonies from farmers in Hebron about these attacks by settler shepherds on their lands.
Anwar Amro describes how settlers control lands in Hebron:7
“On Tuesday, April 6, 2025, at around 4:00 p.m., I was herding cattle and cows, while my son Saher was returning home via a dirt road about 200 meters from the house. I saw six masked settlers, carrying batons and weapons, riding a ‘tracktron’ vehicle. They were coming from the settlement outpost on the neighboring hill. The settlers blocked my son’s path, climbed onto the tractor he was driving, and started shouting at him, trying to steal the tractor key. The settlers continued shouting at my son and threatened to assault him. Later, a group of local residents gathered on the nearby hill and started shouting at the settlers, forcing them to leave towards the valley. After about half an hour, my son returned home, while the settlers went to a piece of land I own on the hill opposite my house, where I saw them uprooting olive saplings we had planted a year ago, with a donation from the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture. There were 30 saplings. After that, the settlers headed to the ‘Sha’ab al-Amara’ area, where the settlement outpost was established, about 500 meters from my house. Since the beginning of this year, the settlers have been bringing their sheep into our wheat and barley crops, grazing them without permission. This land is what we rely on every year to provide feed for our livestock during the winter. Due to this intrusion, we will be forced to buy feed at our own expense this year. The land where I used to plant fava beans every year has been destroyed by the settlers’ sheep. Anyone who is in the area is confronted by the settlers, and the army is called against them. On the same day, one of the settlers brought his sheep to the home of citizen Qadr Amro, which is about 250 meters from my house. The settlers stayed there for five hours, accompanied by Israeli military patrols, who did nothing to stop or remove them from the area. Even the Israeli police, who were contacted several times, did not arrive at the site of the outpost. The settler named ‘Orr,’ along with several other settlers, has established a caravan and a mobile home there. They also own a herd of sheep, which they keep in one of the large caves owned by the Amro family in the village. The settlers have also taken control of several water wells located in the valley, in addition to another well located on the top of the hill, which was established several years ago with funding from organizations that carried out an agricultural reclamation project on that hill, which later became the site of the settlement outpost.”
Land Confiscation by Official Decision
The Israeli occupation authorities do not cease confiscating Palestinian lands as part of official plans, whether through governmental decisions or via settler control.
At the beginning of 2025, the Israeli occupation authorities issued orders to evacuate approximately 75 dunums of rehabilitated, tree-planted land in the Al-Jumjuma area of Halhoul city and Beit Ula town, as well as 70 dunums around Khirbet Umm al-Khair in Yatta, Hebron governorate. These lands have been designated by the Israeli authorities as “state land” since 1982. Through an inspector from the Civil Administration’s Planning and Organization Department, the authorities issued evacuation notices granting a 45-day period for Palestinian landowners to file objections. These landowners had invested hundreds of thousands of shekels to reclaim, cultivate, and develop the land, including digging water wells. This move forces Palestinians to submit to the occupation’s legal framework by initiating land registration procedures and obtaining documentation from Israeli authorities, and pursuing cases in Israeli courts—only to have the land ultimately bulldozed under the pretext of “encroachment.”
The Israeli occupation authorities base such notices on military orders enacted in the occupied territory and on inherited legal frameworks, under which hundreds of thousands of dunums of farmers’ lands have been confiscated. These lands are used as a reserve stock to serve the settlement project in the West Bank, where settlements, settler outposts—particularly pastoral ones—and bypass roads are established. Portions of the land are also allocated to settler farmers, who graze their livestock there or lease the land to establish agricultural farms (including fruit orchards) in various areas across the West Bank.
Recommendations:
The data and field observations presented in this report confirm that settlement policies in the Hebron Governorate are neither random nor isolated acts. Rather, they result from systematic and deliberate coordination among various arms of the occupation: the government, the military, and the settlers. This division of roles reflects an official policy aimed at consolidating Israeli control over West Bank lands and forcibly depopulating Palestinian areas—particularly Hebron—through organized violence protected by legal and military frameworks.
This approach constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into occupied territories. It also represents a severe breach of fundamental human rights for Palestinians, foremost among them the right to housing, freedom of movement, and personal security.
Notably, the International Court of Justice issued a ruling in July 2024 affirming that the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is illegal. The ruling obliges Israel to end its unlawful presence as soon as possible, immediately halt its settlement expansion, and evacuate all settlers from the occupied Palestinian territories.
Accordingly, the PCHR strongly condemns this structural complicity in advancing the settlement project. It calls upon the international community—especially the United Nations and the States Parties to the Geneva Conventions—to fulfill their legal and moral responsibilities by taking urgent and concrete steps to halt this colonial enterprise, hold the occupying state accountable for its ongoing violations, and provide immediate international protection to the Palestinian civilian population in the Hebron Governorate and throughout the occupied Palestinian territories.
