On Friday, March 14, 2025, villages and areas across the West Bank witnessed a series of repeated assaults carried out by settlers under the protection of Israeli occupation forces (IOF), targeting Palestinian homes, properties, and agricultural lands.
In the Duma village, south of Nablus, settlers stormed Khirbet al-Marajim and set fire to three homes of Palestinian citizens, in addition to completely burning two vehicles.
These incidents took place while the occupation forces raided the village, fired live bullets and toxic gas canisters at residents who attempted to extinguish the fires, causing further terror and suffering to the innocent civilians.
These attacks are part of a systematic policy aimed at intimidating residents and forcing them to leave their lands in order to substitute it with more settlements.
The targeting of homes and vehicles is part of a broader strategy to create an unbearable living environment, which are grave violations of international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits attacks on civilians and their property in occupied territories.
In the Kifl Haris village, northwest of Salfit, settlers, under the protection of occupation forces, stormed the town while Israeli forces tightened military measures as settlers performed Talmudic rituals at Islamic shrines.
This act constitutes an attack on freedom of worship, which is guaranteed by international human rights law, including Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which affirms every individual’s right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.
Furthermore, settlers stormed the archaeological site of Tel Ma’in in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, where they performed Talmudic rituals, while other settlers released their livestock into Palestinian farmers’ crops, causing severe damage to their livelihoods.
These attacks fall under the category of deliberate destruction of the property of people under occupation, which is prohibited under the 1907 Hague Convention.
The settlers’ attacks and violations reflect a systematic pattern of assaults directly targeting Palestinians in an attempt to change the reality of the lands.
The continuation of these assaults, amid the absence of international accountability, exacerbates Palestinian suffering and leads to further forced displacement, which requires urgent international action to ensure the protection of civilians and halt settlement expansion and its accompanying violations.
