Acceleration of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of
Palestinians must spur global action to halt West Bank
annexation
– Significant escalation in speed and scale
of annexation measures under Israel’s current
government
– Ethnic cleansing campaign is state-led,
and state-sponsored, not driven by rogue settlers or
so-called extremist ministers
– Exponential rise in
state-backed settler violence terrorizing and expelling
thousands of Palestinians to annex land
– Communities
still at critical risk of displacement, those uprooted must
be protected
– States must halt trade, cooperation and
investment relations enabling unlawful occupation,
apartheid, ethnic cleansing and impose sanctions on
implicated officials
The international community’s
tacit or explicit support for Israeli crimes, including
genocide and apartheid, or their failure to act resolutely
to stop them has emboldened the Israeli authorities to
escalate a brutal campaign to forcibly displace Palestinians
and expand its control over land in the West Bank, said
Amnesty International. In a new report, the organization
details how Israeli authorities are accelerating annexation
through a state-driven campaign of ethnic cleansing
targeting Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities in
Area C of the occupied West Bank, while committing the crime
against humanity of forcible transfer.
The report,
“Erasing anything Palestinian: Israel’s ethnic
cleansing of West Bank Bedouin and herding communities”
, exposes how the Israeli government has made
formal annexation an explicit policy objective. It is
implementing the settler movement’s religious nationalist
agenda. It has accelerated settlement expansion and land
grabs, increased financial and logistical support to
settlements, and it has armed settlers, thereby enabling a
brutal state-sanctioned campaign of settler violence and of
forced displacement of Palestinians from Area C. This area
constitutes over 60% of the occupied West Bank and has long
been central to Israel’s efforts to control land and
demographics, given its natural resources, vital grazing and
agricultural land, and relatively small Palestinian
population.
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“Over the past three and a half years
Israeli authorities have accelerated a state-sponsored
campaign of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, uprooting,
dispossessing and forcibly transferring Palestinian
communities. This is not the work of rogue actors or what
the international community has repeatedly labelled as
extremist settlers, organizations or one or two ministers.
What we are witnessing is deliberate, state-led annexation,
in complete violation of international law unfolding before
the eyes of the entire world,” said Agnès Callamard,
Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“Our
report exposes that these abuses are not the result of a few
‘bad apples’. Settler violence is a core component of a
state-sanctioned campaign of ethnic cleansing, central to
maintaining Israel’s system of apartheid.”
Amnesty
International’s research shows Palestinians are being
forcibly erased from their ancestral lands, cut off from
their livelihoods, and terrorized into fleeing their homes
amidst an unprecedented surge in settler attacks, openly
condoned and actively facilitated by an Israeli government
that boasts of its intent to formally annex large swathes of
Palestinian land.
Communities across the Jordan Valley
and South Hebron Hills facing displacement continue to
resist, determined to remain on the land they have inhabited
for generations. Amnesty International is calling on the
international community to act urgently to protect
them.
Yet despite states’ clear legal obligations to
act to bring an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation and
system of apartheid, the international community has
repeatedly failed to act.
“The international community
has either been complicit in or far too passive in the face
of Israel’s repeated and gross violations of international
law, and its flouting of UN General Assembly and Security
Council resolutions. It must clearly signal that the era of
tacit acquiescence to Israel’s ethnic cleansing and
annexation is over,” said Agnès Callamard.
At least
117 predominantly Bedouin and herding Palestinian
communities have faced either full or partial displacement
between January 2023 and April 2026, according to OCHA. By
the end of April 2026, at least 5,910 people had been
forcibly displaced, according to UN data.
This has
occurred amid an unprecedented surge in acts of state-backed
settler violence. By the end of April 2026, Israeli settlers
had established 363 outposts in the occupied West Bank,
according to the NGO Peace Now. Of these, as many as 212
were created since 2023, with Israeli authorities actively
encouraging them, and taking almost no action to dismantle
them, even though they are illegal under both Israeli and
international law. They included scores of herding outposts,
which are used by settlers to take over large areas of
Palestinian land through grazing. This comes on top of land
grabs by the Israeli government. Nearly 58% of the land in
Area C is unregistered, and by February 2026, Israeli
authorities had already seized half of this unregistered
land through state land declarations.
“To world
leaders that have framed the annexation and settler violence
as isolated acts of ‘extremist’ settlers or ministers
and imposed limited sanctions against some individuals or
organizations, Amnesty’s report must be a wake-up call:
these limited measures are woefully insufficient to address
the state campaign of ethnic cleansing and the systemic
violations that have been rapidly increasing before the eyes
of the international community,” said Agnès
Callamard.
“To world leaders who repeatedly say they
oppose annexation but do nothing to stop it: know that your
inaction is directly fuelling crimes against humanity and
has global consequences further eroding the rules-based
international order.
“States, particularly those with
influence over Israel, including the USA, the UK, Germany,
as well as Italy and other EU and Arab states, must
immediately ban all trade, investment and any form of
cooperation or financial assistance that contribute to
Israel’s unlawful occupation, system of apartheid and
ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
“In addition, all
states, must impose targeted sanctions, including travel
bans and asset freezes, against Israeli officials directly
implicated in these acts, including Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National
Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Minister for Settlement
and National Missions Orit Strock and Defense Minister
Israel Katz.
Amnesty International researched 27
Bedouin and herding communities in Area C that were forcibly
displaced between 2023 and 2025 or are at risk of
displacement.
The research team interviewed 45
Palestinians from 12 communities, who were either displaced
or at risk of displacement, as well as 19 lawyers, activists
who witnessed incidents of settler violence, journalists and
Israeli and Palestinian NGO representatives. The
organization also verified more than 420 videos and images,
and conducted analysis of official government statements,
agreements, legislation, governance changes, court records,
maps, satellite imagery, UN and civil society reports, and
other open-source material.
The organization shared
its findings with the Israeli authorities on 13 May. The
Ministry of Defense responded on 23 May stating that its
forces respond to incidents of settler violence, arresting
suspects, when necessary, and investigating cases where
forces may have failed to comply with orders or failed to
intervene to stop settler violence. Evidence documented by
Amnesty International presents a different
reality.
Evidence of Israel’s intent to ethnically
cleanse and annex Area C
Since the 1967 occupation,
successive Israeli governments have – with varying degrees
of intensity and transparency- pursued Judaization policies
which seek to maximize Jewish control over land in the West
Bank while minimizing Palestinian presence.
Israel’s
37th government, formed in late 2022 and led by Benjamin
Netanyahu’s Likud party in coalition with Itamar
Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious
Zionism parties, has openly and deliberately pursued formal
annexation of Area C and the forcible transfer of its
Palestinian residents.
The government’s coalition
agreements embed settler priorities into state policy and
legitimize the settler movement’s vision of “Greater
Israel,” an ideology that treats the entirety of the
Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) as an integral part of
Israel. It has done so in brazen defiance of multiple UN
resolutions and the International Court of Justice’s 2024
Advisory Opinion declaring Israel’s occupation of
Palestinian territory unlawful.
The intent to remove
Palestinians from Area C of the West Bank and annex the land
is evidenced by explicit calls by Israeli officials for
settlement expansion, the extension of Israeli sovereignty
over the occupied territory, measures aimed at minimizing
Palestinian presence in Area C and public backing for
settlers by key government ministers – some of whom are
themselves settlers. It is also demonstrated by
annexation-oriented legislation and by measures transferring
powers in the West Bank from military to civilian
authorities in violation of international humanitarian
law.
State intent is further reflected in a surge in
state land declarations, simplified procedures for
settlement approvals, accelerated settlement expansion,
retroactive legalization of outposts, and increased
financial and political support for settler infrastructure,
alongside the demolition of Palestinian property and
systemic restrictions on Palestinian movement and access to
land and water.
Within the first three years of the
government’s rule, the Ministry of Settlement and National
Missions’ annual budget grew by 122%, reaching NIS 764
million (USD 254.5 million) by 2026.
According to
Peace Now, plans for the construction of 50,785 settlement
housing units were advanced by the government between 2023
and 2025. In 2025 alone, the Higher Planning Council
approved 27,941 units, the highest annual figure ever
recorded.
The total number of new settlements declared
by the government had reached 102 by 30 April 2026. This is
by far the largest number of new settlements authorized by
one government in Israel’s history.
In parallel,
Israeli authorities demolished 3,407 Palestinian homes and
structures in Area C between January 2023 and April 2026,
displacing 2,996 Palestinians, according to
OCHA.
Meanwhile, settlers, often with direct state
backing or the direct participation of the Israeli military,
have subjected Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities
to a litany of coercive and repressive measures, leaving
many with no option but to abandon the lands they have lived
and herded on for generations. They have been subjected to
sustained state-backed settler violence, which, combined
with increased demolitions and the long-standing denial of
basic services by Israeli authorities, effectively renders
their areas uninhabitable.
Together, these
interconnected coercive measures reveal a deliberate,
coordinated state strategy to expand Israeli control over
Area C while driving the displacement of Palestinian
communities.
One emblematic case is Khirbet Zanuta
(Zanuta), a village in Area C of the West Bank, home to
around 250 Palestinian Bedouins who had lived there for
generations. In 2021, a group of settlers established an
illegal outpost known as Meitarim Farm only 1km away from
Zanuta, and initiated a sustained campaign of harassment,
threats and violent attacks against the Palestinian
community, including blocking access to farmland and grazing
areas, eventually forcing residents to abandon their homes
and livelihoods. The entire community was displaced
following a series of violent settler raids that escalated
after 7 October 2023. The village, surrounded by settlements
and outposts had long faced demolition orders and
restrictive planning policies that made legal construction
nearly impossible.
Despite two rulings issued by the
Israeli Supreme Court in July 2024 and February 2025
ordering authorities to facilitate residents’ return and
protect them from settler violence, residents have been
unable to return due to ongoing settler attacks and the
destruction of key infrastructure. Adel al-Till, a former
Zanuta resident, said: “The settlers were armed and kept
attacking us…We were afraid, it was
terror.”
Satellite imagery, interviews and video
evidence reveal that today Zanuta no longer exists; it has
been extensively destroyed and totally
depopulated.
Exponential rise in state-backed settler
violence
The long-standing campaign of settler
violence against Palestinians in the West Bank surged
dramatically under the current Israeli government leading to
record levels of killings and injuries, displacement,
property destruction and unlawful land appropriation.
Israeli settlers have adopted increasingly aggressive
tactics to forcibly displace Palestinian communities through
attacks on homes and property; persistent harassment,
threats and physical assaults; and systematic targeting of
livelihoods by restricting access to grazing land and water
sources, stealing or killing livestock, and destroying
agricultural fields and crops. According to OCHA between
2020 and 2024 there was a nearly sevenfold increase in
settler-related attacks on Palestinian Bedouin and herding
communities resulting in casualties.
Videos and images
verified by Amnesty International show break-ins, arson, and
widespread vandalism of homes, schools, vehicles, and
agricultural assets, alongside the destruction of water
sources, solar panels, and food supplies. Interviewees also
reported widespread physical violence, including beatings
with sticks and rifle butts, stone-throwing, stabbings, and
other attacks.
Despite Israel’s obligations as an
occupying power to protect the lives and livelihoods of the
occupied population and to prevent and investigate settler
violence, Israeli authorities actively facilitate such
attacks not only by arming settlers and allowing the army
and police to support or participate in attacks against
Palestinians but also by granting perpetrators near-total
impunity.
After the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks,
Israeli authorities loosened criteria for private firearms
licences, issuing thousands of settlers with firearms and
uniforms, making it difficult for Palestinians to
distinguish between soldiers and settlers. By January 2026,
more than 240,000 Israeli citizens had received firearm
licences – a 15-fold increase compared to the annual average
of 8,000 licenses prior to the policy change. These policies
resulted in a sharp increase in armed settler
attacks.
Amnesty’s report documents how Israeli
settler violence was used as a deliberate tool of forced
displacement in three emblematic cases across Area C: Zanuta
in the South Hebron Hills and Ein Samia in the central
Jordan Valley-both fully displaced in 2023-and a cluster of
small communities in the northern Jordan Valley – Ein
al-Hilweh, Makhoul, and Al-Farisiya, which remain at real
risk of displacement.
In the northern Jordan Valley,
at least 38 communities – home to around 7,000 Palestinians
– are threatened with displacement. Nearly 90% of the area
is designated as state land, military firing zones, nature
reserves, or archaeological sites- all tools Israel uses to
restrict Palestinian access to grazing and water sources and
coerce their displacement.
Najiyyah Bisharat, from the
Makhoul herding community, said: “We face constant
harassment by the settlers, but we will not give in. It’s
about our love for our land and for our work. The land is
our identity, and if we are forced out of it, we’ll die.
Just like fish if taken out of water.”
Pervasive
impunity
By failing to prevent and actively
facilitating settler violence, including through the
consistent failure to hold perpetrators to account, Israeli
authorities have deliberately created an environment of
pervasive impunity, thereby fuelling further settler
violence. In several cases documented by Amnesty,
Palestinians who reported settler violence were themselves
interrogated, fined or arbitrarily arrested by the Israeli
authorities, who under international law are obligated to
protect them.
Settler and settler organizations are
further emboldened by the impunity they have enjoyed for
decades. Even where individual settlers or groups have been
sanctioned by foreign states, they have faced little to no
consequences in Israel.
For example, Yinon Levi, a
settler involved in a series of documented violent attacks
against Palestinian communities, who has been sanctioned by
the UK and the EU, was filmed shooting dead unarmed
Palestinian human rights defender and teacher Awda
al-Hathaleen in Umm al-Kheir on 28 July 2025.
Although
briefly arrested on suspicion of “involuntary manslaughter,”
Levi was released the next day and placed under house arrest
for only three days. He later was free to return to harass
Palestinians and work on establishing a new outpost on the
lands of Umm al-Kheir. Nearly a year after the attack, Yinon
Levi has yet to be indicted.
“Without accountability,
Palestinian communities across the West Bank will vanish
before our eyes. For too long, the world has ignored the
immense, unfathomable suffering of Palestinians being
uprooted and erased from land they have inhabited for
generations. States must do everything in their power to put
an end to Israel’s campaign of ethnic cleansing and
annexation in Area C of the West Bank. They must press the
Israeli authorities to immediately to dismantle all Israeli
settlements and outposts and allow all displaced
Palestinians to return to their homes,” said Agnès
Callamard.
“All states must support and cooperate with
the International Criminal Court’s investigation into the
situation in the State of Palestine, as well as open their
own investigations into crimes under international law
committed in the OPT. The message to Israel must be
unequivocal: its long-standing impunity is over, there can
be no business as usual until Israel’s apartheid, ethnic
cleansing, and unlawful occupation
end.”
