The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the armed attacks carried out by Israeli settlers against Bita village, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, coinciding with the olive harvest season.
As a result of these attacks, 35 Palestinians, including 3 women, were injured, and 17 vehicles-one belonging to a journalist-were set on fire. These assaults come as part of the ongoing, government-backed settler violence that has escalated across the entire West Bank.

This crime is part of the broader and ongoing wave of violence repeatedly perpetrated by settlers under the protection of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), encouraged by Israel’s policy of collective punishment and the culture of impunity that settlers enjoy. This assault forms part of a systematic policy aimed at imposing demographic change and enforcing population transfer to maintain Israel’s control and sovereignty over the West Bank and to further the ongoing policy of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian population.

According to eyewitness accounts and information collected by PCHR’s fieldworkers, at around 07:30 on Friday, 10 October 2025, a group of settlers from a pastoral settlement outpost, established southeast of Bita village, southeast of Nablus, attacked a Palestinian family of five, including two elderly men and a woman. The settlers beat them with batons, axes, and stones. As a result, one family member sustained a skull fracture and multiple injuries throughout his body, while one of the elderly men suffered a deep head wound and extensive bruises. A young man, his elderly mother, and his sister also sustained bruises all over their bodies.

At around 11:30 on the same day, two groups of settlers-totaling more than 80, including three masked and armed men, attacked Palestinian farmers, international solidarity activists, and journalists covering the events in the area. The settlers assaulted 30 Palestinians, one of whom was shot in the foot, and set fire to 16 Palestinian vehicles, including a car belonging to journalist Ja’afar Ishtayah, correspondent of the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA), and a tuk-tuk belonging to Bita Municipality.

In his testimony to PCHR, journalist Ja’afar Ishtayah stated that while he was covering the events and filming settlers attacking farmers and international activists from a distance of about 500 meters, he was surprised by a group of settlers intercepting him from another direction and reaching the area where he was located with other journalists and dozens of farmers. They suddenly began throwing stones at them, forcing him to flee toward a steep area despite being hit in the back and left eye, causing him severe pain. He managed to reach a Palestinian Medical Relief ambulance about 300 meters away and got inside. While the ambulance drove toward the location where he had been filming, he saw two vehicles parked in front of his completely ablaze, having been set on fire by settlers. Meanwhile, his own vehicle’s windows were completely shattered. He asked the ambulance driver to stop so he could retrieve the keys, but at that moment, settlers launched another attack, throwing a flaming torch at his vehicle, setting it completely on fire.

This crime is neither an accident nor an isolated incident; rather, it is part of an alarming escalation in settler militia violence, fueled by the arming and support they receive from senior Israeli government ministers. The death toll from settler attacks since the beginning of the year has risen to 12 while dozens of others have sustained various injuries. Additionally, several Palestinians have been killed by the IOF’s gunfire while they were securing settlers’ attacks across various areas of the West Bank.

PCHR emphasizes that these crimes reflect a systematic policy carried out under the protection of the IOF and with the complicity of the Israeli judiciary, which consistently refrains from issuing deterrent rulings against settlers. Meanwhile, these acts of violence aim at depopulating the areas from their indigenous resident to open the way for the unlawful settlement expansion, which constitutes a war crime under international law.

Such atrocities indicate that the IOF, alongside settler militias, enforce a dual system of violence targeting Palestinian existence through killing, destruction, land confiscation, forced displacement, and intimidation. This violence cannot be confronted without serious and decisive international intervention.

PCHR recalls the International Court of Justice’s ruling issued in July 2024, which affirmed that the continued Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory, including the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, is illegal. The ruling obligated Israel to immediately end its illegal presence and cease all settlement-related violations, including the evacuation of settlers from the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).

PCHR reiterates that such crimes require urgent and effective action to halt the IOF and settlers’ crimes in the oPt and to end the apartheid system imposed by Israel on the Palestinian people.

PCHR calls for serious action to hold perpetrators of war crimes accountable before international justice, end the policy of impunity, protect Palestinian civilians, and halt all forms of international support to Israel that enable it to continue its racist and colonial policies.