Israeli settler attacks, movement restrictions and military-imposed blockades are intensifying across the occupied West Bank, trapping Palestinian families in their homes, obstructing access to food and water and deepening resentment over the Israeli regime’s occupation policies.
In Wadi Rakhim in the South Hebron Hills, 52-year-old Yousef Shanaran and his family have been besieged since October 5, when about 50 Israeli settlers attacked their home with sticks and pepper spray after moving a tent to within 30 meters of the property.
The family was subsequently cut off from its well and basic supplies, with access to water requiring coordination with the Israeli army.
“My well, full of water; I built it and lost money on it,” Shanaran told Al Jazeera. “They keep me from it because they want to get me out of my house.”
Nasser Nawajeh, head of the Susiya village council in Masafer Yatta, said repeated attempts to deliver food and other necessities had been obstructed by settlers and delays in military coordination.
“This is a displacement policy,” he said, describing a system in which Palestinian families cannot freely leave their homes or receive supplies without Israeli military permission.
The pattern extends beyond the South Hebron Hills.
In Umm Safa, northwest of Ramallah, settlers have blocked access to the home of Muhammad al-Abayat, whose family of 15 has lived there since 1973. The obstruction has prevented children from reaching school and complicated access to basic supplies for al-Abayat’s ill wife, who needs an operation.
Despite a court ruling and a police decision ordering the gate to be opened, settlers continue to lock it, according to village mayor Marwan Sabah.
On October 20, the Israeli Civil Administration issued a demolition notice for the family’s home.
Meanwhile, in Madama, south of Nablus, Israeli forces sealed the village’s three main entrances on October 12, later closing its last usable road on October 18. Residents said the restrictions disrupted access to hospitals, forced teachers and children to cross earth mounds on foot, and obstructed the olive harvest.
A teacher was beaten by settlers while attempting to cross a barrier, according to local resident and lawyer Wail Qut.
The restrictions have coincided with attacks on Palestinian olive harvesters and the destruction of trees, further threatening livelihoods during the harvest season.
Similar pressure is mounting elsewhere. Settlers have surrounded Bedouin communities near Khan al-Ahmar with barbed wire, while restrictions on access to water and confiscations of equipment in Ras al-Ahmar in the northern Jordan Valley have accelerated displacement.
According to Jordan Valley Activists, another 11 families left Ras al-Ahmar in the preceding two weeks, leaving about 20 of the 59 families originally living there.
“More than half the families have been displaced because of thirst,” local herder Thaer Bisharat said.
Dror Etkes, cofounder of settlement-monitoring group Kerem Navot, described the doorstep sieges as evidence of the collapse of law enforcement in the occupied West Bank.
With more than 400 settler outposts established across the territory, Palestinian residents and local officials warn that attacks, blockades and property demolition threats are increasingly being used to pressure families off their land.
Nawajeh warned that the tactic was becoming normalized, raising fears of further forced displacement under the Israeli occupation.
