Hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank have been driven from their homes by Israeli settlers since the Israel-Hamas war began, according to a leading Israeli human rights organization.
B’Tselem spokesperson Dror Sadot said that the violence has spiked since Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 as Israel is preoccupied with the war in Gaza.
“The scale and intensity of the attacks have escalated,” Sadot told Al-Monitor. “What we’re seeing is the settlers are basically targeting community after community, attacking multiple times … under the cover of the Gaza war.”
As of Sunday, a total of 963 Palestinians have left their homes in the West Bank due to attacks, threats and restrictions by Israeli settlers since the war began Oct. 7. That number over four weeks is nearly double those who fled the West Bank in the 21 months prior. According to B’Tselem’s data, around 480 Palestinians left their West Bank homes from January 2022 until October 2023.
