A United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights report warned on Tuesday that in one year, from November 1, 2024, to October 31, 2025, Israel’s Government has accelerated unlawful settlement expansion and annexation of large parts of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.  This has led to settler violence and the forced displacement of over 36,000 Palestinians amid increasing violence by Israeli security forces and settlers.

“Settler violence continued in a coordinated, strategic and largely unchallenged manner, with Israeli authorities playing the central role in directing, participating in or enabling this conduct,” the report read. The High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that, “The displacement in the occupied West Bank … at the hands of the Israeli military, appears to indicate a concerted Israeli policy of mass forcible transfer throughout the occupied territory, aimed at permanent displacement, raising concerns of ethnic cleansing.”

According to the report, the drastic escalation in settler violence continued to go unpunished by Israeli authorities. The pervasive and persistent impunity prevents the implementation of an effective solution to reduce settler violence and remains a key driver in facilitating and encouraging continued violence against and harassment of Palestinians.

In addition, Israeli authorities are also trying to avoid accountability by implementing policies and measures to render their annexation of the occupied West Bank territory irreversible. Israeli measures to formally and informally support the militarization of the settler movement both amplified the severity of settler violence against Palestinians and rendered it extremely difficult to distinguish between instances of settler violence and instances of State violence.

The report concluded that the Israeli military’s transfer of power to civilian authorities and measures taken to confiscate Palestinian lands for settlement expansion “amounted to an institutionalised regime of systematic discrimination, oppression and violence by Israel against Palestinians”, violating the international law prohibition of racial segregation and apartheid.

According to the report, Member States’ efforts to end and prevent Israeli settler violence through sanctions remained largely ineffective:

Sanctions previously imposed by the United States of America were rescinded on 20 January 2025, while sanctions by other States have primarily targeted individual settlers rather than affiliated entities or organizations, lessening the capacity of such measures to combat widespread, concerted settler violence. Sanctioned individuals have frequently circumvented restrictions by transferring assets or receiving financial support from pro-settlement networks.

In October 2025, 42 settler attacks resulted in 131 injured Palestinians, the highest total recorded in a single month since 2006. The report also found that gender-based violence was a contributing factor triggering displacement. “Other attacks led to family separation, in which women and children were forced to leave, while male family members remained to attempt to retain possession of lands and properties.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk calls on Israel to “immediately and completely cease and reverse the establishment and expansion of settlements, for the evacuation of all settlers, and an end to the occupation of Palestinian territory.”