Resistance to the Wall and Settlement: 11,074 Violations by the Army and Settlers in the First Half of 2026

SadaNews - The head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority, Minister Moyed Shabaan, stated that the total number of violations carried out by the occupying state in the first half of 2026 reached 11,074 attacks by various forces of the occupying state, including the settlers' militia, against Palestinian citizens and their properties. He added that this significant escalation in the form, number, and nature of the violations coincides with the horrific aggression carried out by the occupying state against our people in the Gaza Strip and all areas of Palestinian presence. He mentioned that the violations ranged from imposing facts on the ground (land confiscation, settlement expansion, and forced displacement) to field executions, destruction and plowing of land, uprooting trees, confiscation of properties, and closures and checkpoints that cut the ties of Palestinian geography. These violations were concentrated in Hebron Governorate with 2,224 attacks, followed by Ramallah and Al-Bireh with 2,175 attacks, then Nablus with 2,095 attacks, and Bethlehem with 1,137 attacks.

Shabaan stated that the occupying state no longer deals with settlement as merely a tool for expansion and control over more Palestinian land, but rather as the governing framework for reshaping Palestinian land politically, legally, and administratively, which leads to solidifying the annexation project and turning it into a permanent reality. He explained that the first six months of 2026 witnessed a qualitative transition in the tools of the settlement project, represented by an unprecedented acceleration in the approval of legislations and government decisions that grant settlement a central status in the public policies of the occupying state, alongside the expansion in proposing structural plans, establishing new colonial outposts, seizing land, redrawing the boundaries of settlements, imposing buffer zones around them, increasing demolition orders and notifications, in parallel with the escalation of organized settler terrorism against Palestinian citizens and their properties. He added that the danger of this phase does not only lie in the increase in the number of colonial units or new outposts, but also in the transition of the occupying government to re-engineering Palestinian geography by merging legislative, planning, military, and security tools into a single government policy aimed at undermining Palestinian existence, preventing any possibility of Palestinian urban, economic, or demographic development, while providing an unprecedented legislative, planning, and financial environment to expand the settlement project and enhance its sustainability.

Shabaan affirmed that what is happening today represents a shift from managing the occupation to managing the annexation, as the measures of occupation are no longer taken as temporary measures related to an occupying authority, but rather as sovereign practices that seek to subject Palestinian land to the Israeli legal and administrative system gradually, entrenching facts that are difficult to reverse in the future. He pointed out that this path is accompanied by accelerating attempts to redistribute Palestinian geography, isolating Palestinian population centers from each other, and tightening control over natural resources and strategic roads and axes, serving the Israeli vision aimed at imposing sovereignty over wide areas of the West Bank and undermining the geographical and political foundations for establishing an independent, connected, and viable Palestinian state.

3,488 Attacks by Settlers

Shabaan added that the attacks carried out by settlers in the reported period amounted to a total of 3,488 violations, ranging from attacking Palestinian villages and assaulting the people within them to setting homes ablaze and shooting at citizens, establishing colonial outposts, seizing citizens’ lands, assaulting roads and cars, and launching organized and dangerous attacks that characterized these violations recently, resulting in the martyrdom of 17 citizens at the hands of settlers, of whom 9 martyrs were in Ramallah Governorate, 3 in Nablus, 2 each in Jerusalem and Hebron, and 1 in Salfit. These attacks caused severe damage to 26 Bedouin communities, leading to the partial displacement of 8 and the total displacement of 18 other communities since the beginning of the year. The overall settler attacks were concentrated in Nablus Governorate with 900 violations, Hebron with 840 violations, and Ramallah and Al-Bireh with 780 violations, among others.

In the first half of 2026, settlers established 42 colonial outposts on citizens' lands, most of which were grazing outposts, 4 of which were established in areas classified as (B) according to the Oslo Accords, in the governorates of Hebron with 13 outposts, Ramallah with 9, Nablus with 8, Bethlehem with 4, and others, continuing the policy of imposing facts on the ground pursued by settlers with full sponsorship from the occupying army.

Shabaan highlighted that the occupying state and settler militias caused the cutting and damage of a total of 45,195 trees, including 26,395 olive trees, with 16,617 trees in Hebron Governorate, 7,783 trees in Jenin, 6,834 trees in Ramallah, 6,015 in Nablus, and others, in another record number against Palestinian trees in a clear and systematic targeting within the framework of emptying and destroying Palestinian land.

Study of 113 Structural Plans for Settlements and Approval for the Establishment of 34 New Settlements

Shabaan stated that since the beginning of 2026 until the end of June, the occupying authorities studied (submitted and approved) a total of 113 structural plans for expanding settlements or establishing new settlements, including 71 plans in West Bank settlements and 42 plans for settlements in Jerusalem. Through these studies, a total of more than 8,434 housing units in West Bank settlements and 4,001 in Jerusalem settlements were examined, covering an area of 14,215 dunams of citizens' land. The occupying authorities approved the establishment of 5,859 colonial units in West Bank settlements and 2,104 colonial units within the boundaries of the occupation municipality in Jerusalem. He added that these plans came in parallel with the occupation government’s approval to establish 34 new settlements during the first half of the year, raising the number of settlements approved by the current government since its formation to 103 settlements, including more than 39 settlements to be built from scratch, indicating a clear transition of the settlement project from a policy of expanding existing settlements to a policy of producing new settlements and reshaping the colonial map in the West Bank, serving the annexation project and imposing Israeli sovereignty over Palestinian land.

4379 Dunams of Citizens' Lands Seized

He added that during the period reported in the report, the occupying authorities confiscated more than 4,379 dunams of citizens' lands under various pretenses by issuing 40 orders to seize lands for military purposes, through which 611 dunams were confiscated, leading to the establishment of 4 buffer zones around settlements, 16 secure roads, 12 military sites, and others. It also issued five expropriation orders through which 2,604 dunams were seized, and 4 orders declared state lands through which 1,163 dunams were confiscated. Shabaan noted that the occupying state intensified its targeting of Palestinian tree cover by issuing 48 military orders under the pretext of taking security measures that target trees and crops over an area of 2,093 dunams.

740 Structures Demolished and 254 Others Notified for Demolition

Shabaan remarked that during the first half of 2026, in the context of targeting Palestinian construction and besieging the natural growth of Palestinian villages and towns, the occupying authorities carried out a total of 341 demolition operations, which led to the demolition of 740 structures, affecting 923 individuals, including 546 children and 431 women. The Israeli authorities also issued 254 notifications for the demolition of Palestinian structures under the pretext of not being licensed, with most of these notifications being concentrated in Hebron Governorate with 102 notifications, Bethlehem with 70, and Jerusalem with 34.

Shabaan concluded by affirming that the data from the first half of 2026 reveals that the settlement project is no longer limited to urban expansion or field violations but has entered a more dangerous phase that involves re-engineering Palestinian geography through a comprehensive system of legislations, government decisions, military orders, settlement planning, and organized violence practiced by the occupying state and its settler militias. He emphasized that these policies represent a practical translation of the creeping annexation project and the imposition of Israeli sovereignty over Palestinian land, in a blatant violation of international law and international legitimacy resolutions, calling on the international community to move from verbal condemnation to taking practical and deterrent measures that ensure accountability for the occupying state and halt its crimes, and to provide international protection for the Palestinian people, as the continued impunity represents the main cover for the escalating settlement and the speeding up of violations against Palestinian land and people.