Ramallah (UNA/WAFA) – Minister Mu’ayyad Sha’ban, head of the Commission against the Wall and Settlements, said that the Israeli occupation forces and settlers carried out a total of 11074 attacks during the first half of 2026, indicating a significant escalation in the form, number, and nature of the attacks, coinciding with the terrible aggression launched by the occupying state against our people in the Gaza Strip and all Palestinian areas.
He added, in a report issued on Monday, which addressed violations in the first half of 2026, and data on 1000 days of the war of extermination on the Gaza Strip, that the attacks ranged from imposing facts on the ground (land seizure and settlement expansion, and forced displacement), field executions and sabotage, land bulldozing, uprooting trees, seizing property, closures, and barriers that sever the connections of Palestinian geography.
He noted that these attacks were concentrated in Hebron Governorate with 2224 attacks, followed by Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate with 2175 attacks, then Nablus Governorate with 2095 attacks, and then Bethlehem Governorate with 1137 attacks.
Shaaban said: The occupying state no longer deals with colonialism as merely a tool for expansion and control over more Palestinian lands, but rather as the governing framework for reshaping the Palestinian land politically, legally and administratively, leading to the consolidation of the annexation project and turning it into a permanent reality.
He explained that the first six months of 2026 witnessed a qualitative shift in the tools of the colonial project, represented by an unprecedented acceleration in the approval of legislation and government decisions that give colonialism a central place in the public policies of the occupying state, in addition to expanding the introduction of structural plans, establishing new colonial outposts, seizing lands, redrawing the boundaries of the settlements, imposing buffer zones around them, and intensifying demolition orders and notices, in parallel with the escalation of organized settler terrorism against Palestinian citizens and their property.
He added that the danger of this stage lies not only in the increase in the number of colonial units or new outposts, but also in the occupation government’s move to re-engineer the Palestinian geography by integrating legislative, planning, military and security tools within a single governmental policy aimed at undermining the Palestinian presence and preventing any possibility of Palestinian urban, economic or demographic development, in contrast to providing an unprecedented legislative, planning and financial environment to expand the settlement project and enhance its sustainability.
He emphasized that what is happening today represents a shift from managing occupation to managing annexation, where occupation measures are no longer taken as temporary measures linked to an occupying power, but rather as sovereign practices seeking to gradually subject Palestinian land to the Israeli legal and administrative system. He pointed out that this trajectory is accompanied by accelerated attempts to redistribute Palestinian geography, isolate Palestinian population centers from one another, and tighten control over natural resources, road networks, and strategic routes, all in service of the Israeli vision of imposing sovereignty over large parts of the West Bank.
Shaaban added that the attacks carried out by settlers during the period covered by the report amounted to a total of 3488 attacks. The settlers' attacks ranged from attacking villages and assaulting their residents, to setting fire to houses with their occupants inside, shooting at citizens, establishing settlement outposts, seizing citizens' lands, attacking streets and cars, and launching organized and dangerous attacks that characterized these attacks in the recent period. These attacks resulted in the martyrdom of 17 citizens, including 9 martyrs in Ramallah Governorate, 3 in Nablus, 2 each in Jerusalem and Hebron, and one in Salfit. These attacks also caused serious damage to 26 Bedouin communities, leading to the partial displacement of 8 of them and the complete displacement of 18 other communities since the beginning of the year. The total number of settler attacks was concentrated in Nablus Governorate with 900 attacks, Hebron Governorate with 840 attacks, Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate with 780 attacks, and others.
In the first half of 2026, settlers established 42 settlement outposts on citizens’ lands, most of them pastoral outposts, 4 of which were established within the areas classified as (B) according to the Oslo Accords, in the governorates of Hebron with 13 outposts, Ramallah with 9 outposts, Nablus with 8 outposts, Bethlehem with 4 outposts, and others, in continuation of the policy of imposing facts on the ground pursued by the settlers with full sponsorship from the occupation army.
Shaaban pointed out that the occupying state and the settler militia have caused the cutting down and damage of a total of 45195 trees, including 26395 olive trees, in the governorates of Hebron, Jenin, Ramallah, Nablus and others, in another record number recorded against the Palestinian tree in a clear and systematic targeting within the framework of emptying and rendering the Palestinian land barren.
He added that this significant escalation in the form, number and nature of the attacks coincides with the terrible aggression launched by the occupying state against the Gaza Strip and all places of Palestinian presence.
These attacks also caused serious damage to 26 Bedouin communities, leading to the partial displacement of 8 of them and the complete displacement of 18 others since the beginning of the year. The total attacks by settlers were concentrated in the Nablus Governorate with 900 attacks, the Hebron Governorate with 840 attacks, the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate with 780 attacks, and others.
Shaaban explained that from the beginning of 2026 until the end of June, the occupation authorities reviewed (deposited and approved) a total of 113 structural plans for expanding existing settlements or establishing new ones. Of these, 71 plans were for settlements in the West Bank and 42 for settlements in Jerusalem. These plans encompassed more than 8434 housing units in West Bank settlements and 4001 in Jerusalem settlements, covering an area of 14215 dunams of Palestinian land. The occupation authorities approved the construction of 5859 settlement units in West Bank settlements and 2104 settlement units within the boundaries of the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem municipality. He added that these plans coincided with the occupation government's approval of 34 new settlements during the first half of the year, bringing the total number of settlements approved by the current government since its formation to 103. Of these, more than 39 will be built from scratch, clearly indicating a shift in the settlement project from a policy of expanding existing settlements to a policy of creating new ones. New settlements and reshaping the colonial map in the West Bank, in a way that serves the annexation project and the imposition of Israeli sovereignty over Palestinian land.
He added that during the period covered by the report, the occupation authorities confiscated more than 4379 dunams of citizens' lands under various pretexts by issuing 40 orders to seize land for military purposes, through which they confiscated 611 dunams. This resulted in the establishment of 4 buffer zones around settlements, 16 security roads, 12 military sites, and others. They also issued five expropriation orders through which they confiscated 2604 dunams, and 4 orders declaring state lands, through which they confiscated 1163 dunams. Shaaban indicated that the occupation state intensified its targeting of the Palestinian tree layer by issuing 48 military orders under the pretext of taking security measures targeting trees and crops on an area of 2093 dunams.
Shaaban said that in the context of targeting Palestinian construction and besieging the natural growth of Palestinian villages and towns, the occupation authorities carried out a total of 341 demolition operations in the first half of 2026, which led to the demolition of 740 facilities. As a result of the demolitions, 923 people were affected, including 546 children and 431 women. The Israeli occupation authorities also issued 254 notices to demolish Palestinian facilities under the pretext of lack of licensing. Most of these notices were concentrated in the governorates of Hebron with 102 notices, Bethlehem with 70 notices, and Jerusalem with 34 notices.
Shaaban concluded by emphasizing that the data for the first half of 2026 reveals that the settlement project is no longer limited to urban expansion or field attacks, but has entered a more dangerous phase based on re-engineering the Palestinian geography through an integrated system of legislation, government decisions, military orders, settlement planning, and organized violence practiced by the occupying state and its settler militias.
He stressed that these policies represent a practical implementation of the creeping annexation project and the imposition of Israeli sovereignty over Palestinian land, in flagrant violation of international law and resolutions of international legitimacy. He called on the international community to move beyond verbal condemnation to taking practical and deterrent measures that ensure the accountability of the occupying power, halt its crimes, and provide international protection for the Palestinian people, given that continued impunity constitutes the most prominent cover for the escalation of settlement activity and the accelerating pace of violations against Palestinian land and people..
