Ramallah (UNA/WAFA) – The head of the Palestinian Authority’s Commission against the Wall and Settlements, Minister Mu’ayyad Sha’ban, said that Israeli occupation forces and settlers carried out a total of 2350 attacks during last October, in continuation of the ongoing series of terrorism by the occupying state against the Palestinian people, their lands and properties.
Shaaban explained in the commission’s monthly report, “Occupation Violations and Colonial Expansion Measures,” that the occupation army carried out 1584 attacks, while settlers carried out 766 attacks. The total number of attacks was concentrated in the governorates of Ramallah and Al-Bireh with 542 attacks, Nablus with 412 attacks, and Hebron with 401 attacks.
He explained that the attacks varied between direct physical assault, uprooting trees, burning fields, preventing olive pickers from accessing their lands, seizing property, and demolishing homes and agricultural facilities, at a time when the occupation forces close off large areas of Palestinian land under the pretext of “security,” while settlers are being enabled to expand within them.
Shaaban said that these escalating violations confirm that what is happening is not isolated incidents, but rather an organized methodology aimed at emptying the land of its owners and imposing a comprehensive racist colonial system.
Shaaban explained that the settlers’ attacks, which amounted to 766 attacks, in one of the peaks of settler terrorism that targeted Palestinian Bedouin villages and communities, were concentrated in the governorates of Ramallah and Al-Bireh with 195 attacks, Nablus with 179 attacks, and Hebron with 126 attacks by settlers.
He added that this large number of attacks by settler militias, especially those directed at olive pickers in the Palestinian territories, can only be seen as state terrorism, planned in the dark, black rooms of the occupation government, while the terrorist militia carries it out with complete disregard for the most basic morals and humanitarian rules. He added that this crime requires a firm international stance that protects the Palestinian people and saves the world from its ongoing moral predicament.
He explained that settler terrorist attacks resulted in the martyrdom of Jihad Muhammad Ajaj (26 years old), a resident of Deir Jarir, who was shot dead by settlers. This brings the number of Palestinians killed by settler gunfire since the beginning of 2025 to 14. He added that settlers carried out 352 acts of vandalism and theft against Palestinian property, affecting vast areas of land. Furthermore, settler attacks, aided by the Israeli army, resulted in the uprooting, destruction, and poisoning of 1200 olive trees: 352 in Hebron, 320 in Ramallah, 150 in Tubas, 130 in Qalqilya, 237 in Nablus, and 10 in Bethlehem.
He pointed out that the settlers tried to establish 7 new settlement outposts since the beginning of last October, which were predominantly agricultural and pastoral in nature. These outposts were distributed with an attempt to establish 3 settlement outposts on the lands of Hebron Governorate, and 4 outposts in Nablus Governorate.
He stressed that the escalation of the process of establishing colonial outposts in the last stage could only have happened with clear instructions from the political level in the occupying state, with the aim of imposing facts on the ground and further fragmenting the Palestinian geography. The settlers take on the task of making a change on the ground, and then the official level takes on the task of turning this change into a fait accompli by legislating it, establishing it, and turning it into a colonial site that enjoys all services.
Shaaban said that last October the occupation authorities seized a total of 244.816 dunams of citizens’ land through thirteen “military orders” to seize it for military purposes, which aimed to create buffer zones around settlements in the governorates of Ramallah, Al-Bireh, Nablus, Qalqilya, Salfit and Tulkarm, in addition to creating barbed wire fences and new colonial roads. Some of these orders allocated areas declared as state lands, and previous orders issued in 2005 and 2006 were amended by adding areas to them in order to tighten the closure of settlements according to the names of buffer zones.
He explained that during last October, the occupation authorities carried out 25 demolition operations that affected 28 facilities, including 15 inhabited houses, 2 uninhabited houses, and 11 agricultural facilities, concentrated in the governorates of Tubas with 7 facilities, Salfit with 4 facilities, and then Hebron with the demolition of 3 facilities.
He explained that the occupation authorities distributed 30 notices to demolish Palestinian facilities, continuing the series of restrictions on Palestinian construction and the natural growth of Palestinian villages and towns, which are being translated these days into a large number of demolition operations. The notices were concentrated in the Hebron Governorate with 20 notices, 8 notices in Jerusalem, and one notice in each of Bethlehem and Jenin.
He added that the planning authorities in the occupying state studied last October 19 structural plans for the benefit of the West Bank settlements and within the boundaries of the occupation municipality in Jerusalem, with 12 plans for the West Bank settlements and 7 plans for the benefit of settlements within the boundaries of the occupation municipality in Jerusalem.
He added that these authorities approved 8 structural plans for West Bank settlements (including the publication of approval for two plans related to the E1 project), and deposited 4 other plans, thereby approving the construction of 3524 new settlement units on an area estimated at 2233.138 dunams, while the occupation municipality in Jerusalem approved two plans and deposited for subsequent approval 5 plans related to settlements within the boundaries of the occupation municipality in Jerusalem, amounting to 1205 settlement units, on an area estimated at 28.549 dunams of citizens’ land.
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