Israeli Violence In West Bank Surges As Iran War Shifts Global Focus

ISTANBUL, March 18 (Bernama-Anadolu) -- As the US-Israel war on Iran escalates, violence in the occupied West Bank is intensifying, largely out of the global spotlight, Anadolu Ajansi reported.

Rights groups and analysts say Palestinians are facing a sharp rise in attacks by Israeli forces and settlers, alongside tighter movement restrictions and growing displacement, as international attention shifts toward the wider regional conflict.

Recent incidents have underscored the worsening situation. Israeli settlers were reported to have sexually assaulted a Palestinian man in the northern Jordan Valley, while Israeli forces killed a family of four, including two children, in the town of Tammun.

Analysts say the escalation has accelerated since US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran began on Feb 28, triggering a broader regional war.

“The Israeli government took advantage of the situation in the region by unleashing the settlers to attack Palestinian properties, homes and lives,” said Mohamad Alqeeq, a Ramallah-based Palestinian political analyst and writer.

Max Rodenbeck, Israel-Palestine director at the International Crisis Group, pointed out that settler violence had “already been growing” before the Iran war, “ever since the current Israeli government took office in December 2022.”

Just like Israel’s war on Gaza, the Iran conflict has diverted media attention, creating conditions that allow settlement expansion to accelerate, he said.

Along with the shift in focus, security measures imposed by Israel “due to wartime conditions also help, by confining Palestinians to their towns, villages or homes while allowing settlers to roam freely,” Rodenbeck added.

Between Feb 28 and March 14, Israeli forces and settlers killed at least 13 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

Eight were shot by Israeli forces, including two minors, while five were killed by settler militias.

In a briefing to foreign diplomats on Tuesday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin warned that illegal Israeli settlers have been attacking Palestinians and their properties every day, including killings, assaults, arson attacks and destruction of agricultural land, “under the direct protection of the Israeli army.”

At the same time, Israeli forces have intensified raids and arrests across the Palestinian territory.

Rights groups have documented pre-dawn operations in areas including Qalqilya, Ramallah, Hebron and East Jerusalem, where dozens of Palestinians were detained in a single night. In another raid in Askar refugee camp, several people were injured and others arrested.

UN officials also say that Israeli security forces have carried out daily raids since Feb 28, detaining at least 200 Palestinians, including on charges such as “incitement” or “glorification of the enemy” through social media posts.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 1,062 Palestinians, including at least 231 children, were killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between Oct. 7, 2023 and March 7 this year.

Beyond direct violence, Palestinians are facing a widening set of Israeli restrictions affecting daily life, including curbs on movement and closures of religious sites.

UN agencies said movement restrictions have intensified across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since Feb 28, limiting access to work, health care and essential services.

“In particular, increased access restrictions across the West Bank hindered the ability of ambulances and fire brigades to move between villages, hospitals, and service centers,” UN OCHA said.

Between Feb 28 and March 3, the agency documented nine incidents in which ambulances were obstructed and held at gunpoint.

Delays and closures have also caused shortages of fuel, including cooking gas, it added.

Access to religious sites has also been restricted. Israeli authorities have limited Muslim worshippers’ access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan, a move denounced by rights groups as “a clear violation of freedom of worship.”

At the same time, demolitions of Palestinian homes have increased. The Jerusalem Centre for Legal Aid and Human Rights reported that Israel demolished 312 residential and agricultural structures in the first six weeks of 2026 alone.

Ajith Sunghay, head of UN Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said at least nine Palestinian communities have been fully or partially displaced since Feb 28, mostly in the northern Jordan Valley.

A separate UN report published on Tuesday found that more than 36,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced between November 2024 and October 2025 due to increasing violence by Israeli security forces and settlers.

Analysts say the current wave of violence comes alongside broader efforts by Israel to expand administrative and legal control over Palestinian land.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Shahin said Israeli authorities are using regional crises to accelerate settlement expansion and annexation.

She said the international community’s focus on wider conflicts has allowed Israel to push forward policies aimed at consolidating permanent control over the occupied West Bank.

Analyst Alqeeq agreed with her assessment, saying Israel “took advantage of the US military buildup in the region” to accelerate its plans to annex more land, including by increasing military operations and greenlighting settler attacks.

Crisis Group expert Rodenbeck said the situation is being driven not only by policy decisions but also by a broader climate of impunity for settler violence.

“Enabling Israeli measures include distributing weapons to settlers, loosening rules for weapons licensing, gifting vehicles (including quad bikes) to settlers, legalising previously ‘illegal’ settlement outposts, allowing settlers to wear military uniforms, lifting the Israeli army’s right to detain settlers … failing to prosecute settlers, and extremely lenient sentences for settler crimes. That is just a quick, partial list.”

He emphasised that Palestinians “are being treated as an enemy population, and collectively punished.”

“Palestinians are already being ethnically cleansed from large parts of the West Bank, and squeezed into ever-smaller, more isolated pockets,” Rodenbeck said.

“Current Israeli policy offers no future to the West Bank’s 3.3 million Palestinians except deepening repression. It is a recipe for disaster, but just what kind of disaster we do not know.”

-- BERNAMA-ANADOLU