Layan Bsharat
18 June 2026•Update: 18 June 2026
- Around 300 violations recorded in April 2025 alone, Palestinian commission says
Israel’s settlement policies and military restrictions have displaced 50 Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank since late 2023, the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights said late Wednesday.
According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, the commission announced the findings of a study on Bedouin and herding communities conducted in cooperation with the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
The report said around 300 violations targeting individuals and institutions were recorded in the occupied West Bank in April 2025 alone, adding that 50 Palestinian communities have been displaced since late 2023.
It noted that Bedouin communities in the West Bank are facing increasing pressure due to attacks by the Israeli army and Israeli occupiers, as well as a range of movement and access restrictions.
Commission Director General Ammar Dweik called for the development of a comprehensive national plan based on development and human rights to protect Bedouin and herding communities.
“Serious development investment in Bedouin and herding communities in the occupied West Bank is needed, as well as legal and field protection and accessible basic services to strengthen their ability to remain in the face of Israeli policies and measures,” Dweik was cited by WAFA as saying at the report launch conference.
He stressed the need to ensure access to basic services and protect these communities from demolition orders, land and grazing-area confiscations, movement restrictions, and attacks by Israeli occupiers seizing Palestinian land.
Sufyan Abu Harb, acting head of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, said these communities face systematic marginalization, forced displacement, and deprivation of basic services by the Israeli army and Israeli occupiers.
He added that access to healthcare and education has been restricted, water sources have been destroyed, and schools are under threat of demolition.
Khadija Zahran, director of the policy and legislation monitoring department at the Independent Commission for Human Rights, said 53.7% of residents of Bedouin and herding communities have refugee status, meaning about half of the population lives in a dual state of historical displacement and current vulnerability, according to WAFA.
Bedouin communities in the West Bank have increasingly faced attacks and violations by occupiers and Israeli forces, causing many of them to be displaced amid settlement expansion.
In a report published on June 10, Amnesty International also said Israel has accelerated policies targeting Bedouin and herding communities in the occupied West Bank through land seizures and related measures.
Since Israel launched its offensive on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, raids, arrests, and attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem have also increased.
*Writing by Lina Altawell in Istanbul
