Israeli settlers continue to escalate their attacks on Palestinians, their lands and their property in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, under full protection of the Israeli occupation forces (IOF).
These attacks included storming holy sites, destroying crops, seizing land, and demolishing facilities, as part of a policy aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinians and establish settlement expansion.
Settlers continued to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque under heavy protection from the occupation police, as 543 settlers stormed the mosque courtyards on Thursday, February 20, 2025. They stormed it in groups and carried out provocative tours while performing Talmudic rituals.
These incursions are part of Israeli attempts to change the reality in Al-Aqsa Mosque and divide it temporally and spatially.
In Nablus, dozens of settlers stormed the archaeological site in the town of Sebastia, amidst a heavy deployment and protection by the IOF.
Nablus is subject to daily raids aimed at imposing Israeli colonial control over Palestinian historical sites, in flagrant violation of international law.
The attacks also extended to agricultural lands and Palestinian property. In Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, settlers plowed lands planted with winter crops, destroying crops and causing heavy losses to farmers. They also released their livestock into large areas of agricultural land to damage it.
In Masafer Bani Naim, a settler demolished a 700-square-meter cowshed, seized a generator, agricultural equipment, and digging tools, and bulldozed the road near the shed, as part of an ongoing campaign aimed at oppressing residents and forcing them to leave.
According to official Palestinian statistics, settlers carried out 318 crimes against Palestinian property last month, including uprooting 969 trees, most of which were olive trees, in various governorates of the West Bank. The attacks were concentrated in the governorates of Ramallah and Al-Bireh (105 attacks), Nablus (76 attacks), Hebron (55 attacks), and Qalqilya (31 attacks).
These attacks are part of the Israeli settlement policy that violates international law, as the Fourth Geneva Convention stipulates that the occupying power is prohibited from transferring its population to the occupied territories and is prohibited from confiscating property or harming civilians and their property.
Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories is also illegal under UN Security Council resolutions, especially Resolution 2334, which affirms that Israeli settlements constitute a flagrant violation of international law and that all settlement activities must cease immediately.
According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the forced displacement of populations, the destruction of property, and attacks on civilians constitute war crimes that require international accountability. However, the Israeli occupation continues its repressive policies in the absence of any real accountability by the international community.
