On Monday, Gassan Abdel Bassett and his family left their home on the occupied West Bank to visit their relatives.
They were going to break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
Later that night, their neighbors informed them that Israeli settlers had invaded their homes.
Gassan quickly returned to confront the settlers, but Israeli forces intervened to prevent him and his family from returning to their homes.
The settlers claimed they bought the house, but the Abdelbasset family never sold it.
“The settlers claim they bought a house from someone, but no one has given this person the legal right to sell our home,” Gassan told Al Jazeera.
“God willingly, we will follow legal procedures [in Israel]the law will take that course,” he added.
Accelerating emissions
Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal under international law. As an occupying person, Israel is not permitted to transfer citizens to the occupying territory or enforce the laws of the state there.
However, more than 750,000 Israeli settlers live in illegal settlements on the West Bank, many forged property deeds to provide legal veneers to confiscate Palestinian homes.
According to analysts, Palestinians and local rights groups, this is one of several strategies used by state-sponsored settlers to uproot Palestinians.
Settlers are supported by the Israeli state, destroying homes, establishing front posts bases, attacking farmers, destroying crops, and stealing livestock under Israeli military supervision.
Israeli settlers now control 14% of Palestinian land on the West Bank, two Israeli human rights organizations, according to a recent report by Peace Now and Kerem Navot.
Since Israel’s latest government came to power in December 2022, about half of the land has been confiscated, marking a serious escalation.
Since Israel launched its genocide war with Gaza in October 2023, its far-right government has stepped up annexation and eviction of land on the West Bank, rights groups, local monitors and analysts told Al Jazeera.
Diana Mardi, a researcher at Bimcom, an Israeli human rights group, said:
“They tend to use violence to reach the point where they feel that Palestinians have to leave their homes,” she told Al Jazeera.
Bedouins and farmers at risk
Farmers and Bedouin communities are most at risk from attacks and evictions by Israeli settlers.
A report by Peace Now and Kerem Navot found that since 2022, at least 60% of Palestinian herdsmen’s communities have been uprooted from the land.
In addition, 14 illegal front posts have been built on the land where Palestinian farmers, herdsmen and Bedouins lived.
The report added that settlers tend to use packs of animals to invade Palestinian land and blackmail farmers.
Reese, a Palestinian farmer who refused to disclose his surname for fear of retaliation, said that settlers often attempt to take over the farmland of his village, east of Ramallah.
He added that settlers often destroy crops, preventing Palestinians from caring for the land in his village.
After facing constant threats and attacks by settlers often protected by Israeli forces, Palestinians often abandon their livelihoods.
“To protect the family, they have to leave the area. Many of them have children who need to stay safe, but they lose their main source of income [from farming] When they leave,” Mardi explained.
“The settlers are trying to take over our land,” Reese said. “When the army is with armed settlers, that means it’s not easy. It’s not easy to resist.”
“Animals have more rights than us.”
President Donald Trump’s administration has further encouraged the Israeli settler movement, said Omar Rahman, an Israeli-Palestinian expert on the Middle East Council on the Earth’s Issues.
Rahman stressed that when settlers attack Palestinians and steal land, they would benefit from an immunity environment, but Trump has abandoned the pretext of supporting human rights worldwide and supported the aspirations of an independent Palestinian state.
“The other aspect is that Trump is surrounded by people who are not Israel’s supporters, but “great Israel.” That means they believe they belong biblically. [exclusively] To the Israelites,” Rahman told Al Jazeera.
After Trump was launched on January 20th, he soon signed an executive order to lift sanctions on settlers who the previous administration deemed “extremists” and are responsible for undermining the solution in the two states.
The order was issued a day after the temporary ceasefire took effect in the Gaza Strip, suspending what UN experts and legal scholars say is a campaign for Israeli massacre against the Palestinians.
The next day, the number of settlers surged across the West Bank.
Palestinians expelled from their homes or uprooted from their farms have either dripped into nearby villages or moved to urban areas under ostensibly controlled by Palestinian authorities.
Reese said five or six families have moved to his village after settlers expelled them from their farms since October 7, 2023.
He promised that despite growing fear of settlers’ attacks, and that he was seen as Western indifference to the Palestinians and their light-forming forms, he would never leave the village.
“No one cares about human rights. Human rights are just a big lie,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Animals have more rights than we do.”
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