JALUD, West Bank — In the predawn hours of Saturday morning, Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Jalud, setting fire to electricity cables and scattering road spikes across the village roads. The road spikes had a specific purpose: to delay the arrival of security forces.

This is not an isolated incident. It is the latest in a coordinated campaign of terror against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank — a campaign backed by the Israeli state, protected by its military, and enabled by its international allies.

The Attack on Jalud

The attack on Jalud followed a familiar pattern. Settlers arrived under the cover of darkness, destroyed critical infrastructure, and made it impossible for help to arrive. Electricity cables burned. Roads blocked. Residents trapped.

This is the third attack on Jalud in recent weeks. On April 28, dozens were injured when settlers stormed the village and set a house ablaze. In March, simultaneous attacks hit Jalud and Salfit, south of Nablus, as settlers burned homes and vehicles in coordinated raids.

The message is clear: Palestinians are not safe in their own homes. Not at night. Not in the morning. Not ever.

34 New Settlements: Burying Palestinian Statehood

While settlers burn villages, the Israeli government is burying Palestinian statehood in concrete and settlement outposts.

On April 1, Israel's security cabinet secretly approved 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank. This is the largest-ever recognition of unauthorized outposts in a single step — a massive escalation of Israel's settlement expansion push.

The decision was not announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. It was reported by the Peace Now watchdog group, which tracked the cabinet's secret approval.

The Palestinian Presidency condemned the plan as a "flagrant violation of international law." The UN International Court of Justice ruled last year that Israel's settlements on occupied West Bank land are illegal under international law and must be withdrawn.

But Israel is not withdrawing. It is expanding.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself, has been explicit about the goal: burying the idea of Palestinian statehood in the West Bank through settlement construction.

The 34 new settlements are not accidents. They are strategy. They are the blueprint for annexation.

Aftermath of an Israeli settler attack on a Palestinian village in the West Bank, showing destroyed buildings and debris

State-Backed Terror Squads

The UN has a name for what's happening in the West Bank.

On March 19, 2026, UN experts condemned Israel's "accelerating campaign of ethnic cleansing and annexation" in the occupied West Bank. They identified "state-backed terror squads" at the forefront of this policy.

"Israeli authorities rely on illegal settlers to 'do the groundwork' of the ethnic cleansing," the experts said.

The evidence is overwhelming. Reports reveal that arms and vehicles have been provided to settler groups. Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir has claimed that "Jews are above the law in the West Bank" while granting firearm licenses to settlers in occupied East Jerusalem.

Between February 3 and February 16 alone, at least 86 Israeli settler attacks took place across 60 Palestinian communities. On March 3, armed settler groups and Israeli military forces raided the village of Qaryut, killing two Palestinians. Ambulances were unable to reach the injured for over an hour because of Israeli military closures.

The Military: Protectors of Pogroms

The Israeli military is not a neutral force in the West Bank. It is an active participant in the settler violence.

The UN experts reported that Israeli soldiers stand guard during settler attacks, preventing Palestinian self-defense. The Guardian revealed in March that Israel has not prosecuted its citizens for killing Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank since the start of this decade — zero prosecutions, creating absolute impunity for a campaign of violence.

When settlers burned homes and vehicles in Jalud in March, Israeli forces entered areas under the protection of those same settlers. When settlers attacked Qaryut, killing two Palestinians, the military blocked ambulances from reaching the wounded for over an hour.

This is not bystander behavior. This is coordination. This is protection.

The military and the settlers are not separate entities in the West Bank. They are two branches of the same project: ethnic cleansing through terror, displacement through violence, annexation through force.

The Toll: Killed, Wounded, Displaced

The human cost of this campaign is staggering.

Since the start of 2026, settlers have killed at least six Palestinians in the West Bank. The number of those injured is in the dozens. The number displaced is in the hundreds — and growing.

The UN says settler violence has led to the displacement of at least 700 Palestinians from the start of 2025 through February 2026. Those numbers have continued to climb.

"Israeli settlers are attacking Palestinians throughout the West Bank with impunity, and so viciously that this has led to entire communities being displaced," said Sarit Michaeli of the Israeli rights group B'Tselem.

The attacks include arson, beatings, and vandalism. Settlers target Palestinian homes, vehicles, and livestock. They vandalize harvests, destroy olive trees, and attack critical water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities. They kill or steal sheep from pasturelands.

In Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, entire communities have been displaced. In the Jordan Valley, thousands of families have been forced to flee because of settler attacks and the destruction of essential infrastructure.

Damage to a mosque after a settler arson attack in the West Bank

Hate Speech from the Top

The violence on the ground is fueled by hate speech from the highest levels of the Israeli government.

Ben-Gvir's claim that "Jews are above the law in the West Bank" is not an offhand comment. It is policy. It is the justification for granting firearms to settlers, for protecting pogroms with military force, for refusing to prosecute crimes against Palestinians.

The UN experts warned that settler groups are being galvanized by hate speech from government officials and rampant impunity for brazen attacks that kill and injure Palestinians, including children and older persons.

The mobs do not act alone. They act with the knowledge that the state will protect them, that the military will guard them, that the international community will do nothing.

The International Response

The international response has been condemnation without consequence.

The UN condemns. The ICJ rules. The PA protests. But the settlements continue to expand. The attacks continue to mount. The deaths continue to pile up.

The UN experts called on States to bring the unlawful occupation to an end, in compliance with the ICJ's 2024 Advisory Opinion and the UN General Assembly Resolution.

"Tragically, States have failed to stop Israel's crimes, emboldening its impunity and giving it carte blanche to continue its atrocities against Palestinians," they said.

Carte blanche. That is what the international community has given Israel: a blank check to displace, to attack, to kill.

The Future: Ethnic Cleansing as Policy

What is happening in Jalud is not spontaneous violence. It is a policy.

The attack on electricity cables, the road spikes to delay help, the burning of homes — these are tactics in a broader campaign. The 34 new settlements are the infrastructure of annexation. The military protection of pogroms is the enforcement mechanism.

Ben-Gvir says Jews are above the law in the West Bank. The settlers act as if they are. The military enforces it.

The goal is no longer in question: ethnic cleansing. The elimination of Palestinian presence in strategic areas of the West Bank. The expansion of Israeli control through illegal settlements. The burial of any possibility of a Palestinian state.

The only question is whether the world will continue to watch as it happens.

In Jalud, the electricity cables are still burning. The road spikes are still in place. The settlers are still coming.

And the international community is still doing nothing.