Settler violence against Palestinians intensifies in the West Bank

[0:00] The West Bank is roughly the size of Delaware and home to three million Palestinians and over [0:05] half a million Israelis. Israel seized it from Jordan during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war [0:11] and has since built dozens of illegal settlements on the occupied land that Palestinians want for [0:16] their future state. Just this month, Israel approved 34 more illegal settlements, according [0:21] to the Peace Now Watchdog Group. The settlement movement has provoked waves of deadly violence [0:25] from both sides. In the last year, two years, violent ultranationalist settlers have significantly [0:31] intensified their attacks on Palestinians with tacit support from Israeli authorities. [0:35] Britt Klenit reports now from the West Bank. I find this hard to believe. Very, very hard to believe. [0:44] Ragda Abu Siyam is still in shock and in a world of pain. This is me with him. [0:49] On February 18th, her 19-year-old son, Nasrallah, an American citizen, was with his friends who say [0:55] they were trying to stop armed settlers from stealing their cattle. In this video, you can [1:00] see the moment Nasrallah is shot down by Israeli settlers in an intense clash on the hillside [1:05] near their home in Mokmas in the occupied West Bank. [1:08] He was trying to save his friend's life. They shoot him with no reason. He was not attacking [1:16] them. They were attacking us and him. It's just hate. Just hate. [1:23] Nasrallah is at least the eighth American citizen to be killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers [1:28] since 2024, according to the human rights advocacy group DAWN. Nasrallah's father, Mohamed, [1:35] takes us to where it happened. It's the first time he's been there since. [1:39] Over here. [1:39] Ten days later, the war with Iran began. When the West Bank is attacked, it's only the settlers [2:15] who have somewhere safe to go. That grey structure, that is a temporary shelter. [2:20] Yeah, it is. Israel just established this in the first day of war. Immediately, they brought it [2:28] and they put it here. But Palestinians have no rights to have it. [2:35] In the southern West Bank village of Omar Haer, local journalist Id Salaman Hadaline shows me where [2:41] Israeli settlers have set up a new outpost a few hundred yards from where these Palestinians live. [2:47] Settlers took the advantage from this time where nobody thinking or looking to what happened [2:53] in the Kobayi territory. They built more outposts in the West Bank. They attacked Palestinians 24 [2:59] hours a day. All these flags established just a few days ago to show the power. [3:08] During our interview, a drone appears above us. Moments later, a few settlers approach. [3:14] Let me tell you something about those Palestinians who you think allegedly got killed, all right? [3:20] You come in here from overseas and say to us, to Israelis on our land, that we are good? [3:26] Well, actually, this is Palestinian land, isn't it? [3:30] There's no such thing as Palestine, yes. [3:33] Since the outbreak of the Iran war, violence in the West Bank has become more frequent and [3:37] more brutal. In the first month of this war, 20 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank. [3:44] On this hill, an Israeli settler opened fire on a group of Palestinians, killing one of them. [3:49] According to the UN, Israeli settlers killed six Palestinians in March. That's nearly the same [3:54] as all of last year. At the same time, Israeli settlers are also expanding their outposts, [4:00] makeshift camps which are illegal even under Israeli law. [4:04] You see any outposts there? One? Two? [4:09] Drawer Edkis, an Israeli who tracks the expansion of settlements and outposts, [4:13] shows us how these have multiplied since the war with Iran began. [4:16] Just think, you have three million Palestinians in the West Bank, so you want to push them [4:21] farther and farther and to squeeze them and to squeeze them and to squeeze them. [4:25] Where there are new settlers, where there are new outposts, there is a new wave of violence, always. [4:31] They come hand in hand. [4:33] Exactly, because once settlers are, for example, here in this hilltop, okay, last year, [4:39] once they establish an outpost on this hilltop, so the whole area has become inaccessible, [4:43] it becomes dangerous. [4:44] Has it ever been this bad? [4:47] No, it's never been such bad, no. This is beyond my worst nightmares. [4:54] This video shows the moment settlers attack a group of Israeli volunteers working with [4:58] Palestinians in the village of Khuzra. In an attack from the same outpost two weeks later, [5:05] 28-year-old Amir Oder was shot dead in a confrontation with settlers. [5:10] His father was beaten in the head and stabbed in the leg several times. [5:14] As we're filming, we're told the settlers are coming back to the village. [5:49] We heard that there has been an attack at the same viewing point we were at, so we're going [5:53] to go back up and see what has happened. [5:58] There are about five Israeli settlers on that hillside. They're wearing masks. Some of them [6:03] are carrying big wooden sticks, steel bars. They're trying to intimidate the Palestinians here. [6:10] Palestinians call the Israeli defense forces to tell them settlers are intimidating them [6:15] on their land, adding the American media are present. About 40 minutes later, five IDF and [6:21] police vehicles arrive. The Palestinians say it's an unusually large response. [6:27] We spoke with border police officers to get some clarity about their presence. [6:31] They say that they're here to evacuate them from the place. [6:34] Okay, forever? They'll never be able to come back? [6:37] I just spoke to a man who lost his son in an attack. He was attacked here on his own land. [6:51] What line? Where is the line? I don't see the line. [6:58] And three nights later in Khuzra. [7:06] We're just a few hundred yards from where those soldiers spoke to us. We got a call in the middle [7:10] of the night from locals here saying that their village had been attacked by settlers again. [7:15] And look, I mean, dead chickens all over the ground here. Their coop set on fire. It's completely [7:21] charred out. You can see this truck is still smoldering. I can smell burnt plastic and metal still. [7:27] You know, the IDF had told us that they were cracking down on these kind of attacks. But [7:33] clearly, they keep happening. [7:36] In a statement to ABC News, the IDF says when receiving any report of a breach of law and order, [7:41] IDF troops are deployed to the area and act to disperse confrontations and detain suspects. [7:47] Regarding the incident in Khuzra, the IDF states that forces acted to prevent further escalation [7:53] and that eight Israelis were apprehended by the Israel police. As for the killing of [7:58] Nasrallah and Amir, the IDF says the cases are under investigation. [8:02] So no one has been punished for killing your son? [8:05] No one. No one of them. No one of them. [8:08] They're still free and they come to the village every single day and cause problems. [8:14] And no one stops them. Just because we are Palestinian. That's all.