For Jamila Rashid and her family, the Bedouin village of Ras Ain al-Auja has been home for years. But in early January, they had to move. “The harassment by Israeli settlers has become unbearable,“ the young mother laments. “There is no security anymore. We have been suffering for three years, and the provocations are getting worse,” she adds.
Hundreds of Palestinian families are being driven out of their homes
Over the past year, settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has escalated. According to data from the Israeli army and the Shin Bet internal security service, the number of attacks has increased significantly since Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip. In 2025 alone, the increase was 27%. Attacks against Israeli soldiers stationed in the West Bank have also increased.
Since January 2023, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has documented more than 700 Palestinian families forced to flee their homes due to settler violence in the West Bank. This mainly concerns Palestinian Bedouin communities in the so-called Area C, which covers up to 60% of the West Bank and is entirely under Israeli rule.
Since October 2023, at least 44 Bedouin communities have been completely displaced, according to data from the Israeli human rights organization "B'Tselem".
"We don't even know where to go"
In the village of Ras Ain el-Auja, located in the southern Jordan Valley, the situation began to deteriorate in late December 2025, when Israeli settlers established an illegal outpost in the village. Since then, more than 130 people have left the village due to ongoing attacks by the settlers. Jamila Rashid left in early January. "This is very painful and humiliating. "Can there be anything worse than having your own home demolished? We don't even know where to go," she told DW.
People are gathering their belongings and loading them onto trucks along with their livestock, which they rely on for their livelihood. Young men from nearby Ramallah are helping them dismantle their barns and houses.
Mohammed Abu Fadi is watching the situation with disbelief. He has not yet decided whether to leave or stay. "Every day and every night they come on horses and harass us. All this affects the children, the animals, the birds. This is not human behavior," he emphasizes.
Settlers have been moving in there for decades
Ras Ain al-Auja is not the only place where such scenes are taking place - the picture is the same in many other Palestinian settlements. In Muarajat, Israeli settlers have built an outpost right in the center of the village, forcing Palestinians to flee their homes. Similar scenes are taking place in the neighboring village of Mughair al-Deir.
According to the organization Peace Now, which condemns the Israeli occupation, there are more than 149 settlements in the West Bank, to which we must add 224 smaller unauthorized outposts and so-called farms. According to international law, these settlements in the occupied territories are illegal.
Israel disputes this. Since the conquest and occupation of the West Bank during the 1967 war, successive Israeli governments have encouraged the construction and expansion of settlements. Benjamin Netanyahu has even appointed settlers to high-ranking government positions. His government recently approved the construction and legalization of 19 new settlements.
In addition, there is a danger that the West Bank will be divided into two parts - if the controversial settlement project "E1" is implemented. Most of the international community, including Germany, considers Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank to be a significant obstacle to the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Activists from Israel help locals
In Ras Al Auja, foreign volunteers, including from Israel, are trying to protect local villagers, having organized a 24-hour presence in the village for this purpose. On a small hill near the village, the activists have established their own post from which they monitor the movements of the settlers.
"We don't have many options, but we think we are providing them with protection while they collect their belongings. "We manage to help them leave this place safely," Netta Ben Porat, an activist with the non-governmental anti-occupation organization "Look the Occupation in the Eye," told DW.
She claims that the settlers "harass, steal, beat and threaten, take pictures of their houses and enter their yards with horses. Local residents cannot sleep, rest, they have to be constantly alert. Many decide that they cannot live like this and simply leave," the activist explains.
What is the Israeli government doing?
Palestinians and activists who support them say the Israeli government allows these attacks to happen unhindered, and that the perpetrators are largely unaccountable for their actions. Israeli activist Amir Pansky has observed young Israeli shepherds from neighboring villages, often minors, driving flocks of sheep and goats into the village.
"The state of Israel and the local administration use them as proxies for the occupation. These shepherds harass the locals every day, every night. The army, the police, the state and the West Bank administration are behind them," Pansky said.
There are also cases of livestock being stolen by settlers, who take them with them to their farms or outposts. And although Palestinian farmers have provided evidence of the animals' whereabouts, the army and police have taken no action to return the animals to their owners.
DW received the following response from the Israeli military when asked what the army was doing to protect the residents of the village of Ras Ain al-Auja: "Our soldiers enter the area in accordance with operational needs to prevent conflicts between groups of the population and to maintain order and security in the area. They are obliged to intervene and detain suspects until the arrival of the police if they find that Israeli citizens are doing something illegal against Palestinians or their property."
Jamila Rashid has since left Ras Ain al-Auja, taking her family to a safer place. Many other locals have done the same, and the remains of their homes are a reminder that people once lived here.
Author: Tanya Kremer