Israeli settlers carried out at least 264 attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in October, the highest monthly figure since UN monitoring began in 2006. This averages eight incidents per day, many resulting in casualties and property damage, despite a truce in the Gaza war. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) noted the surge amid ongoing settlement expansion.
According to Ocha, the 264 attacks in October mark the peak since monitoring started in 2006. Since then, the agency has documented over 9,600 such incidents, with about 1,500 occurring in 2025 alone, representing roughly 15% of the total. Many resulted in casualties and property damage, averaging eight per day.
The incidents took place despite a U.S.-mediated truce in the Gaza war in October, which halted most fighting and led to hostage releases. Israel's mission to the UN did not immediately respond to comment requests.
Ocha also reported that, as of November 5, 42 Palestinian children were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank in 2025. "This means that one in every five Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank in 2025 was a child," the office stated.
Home to 2.7 million Palestinians, the West Bank lies at the heart of the two-state solution, envisioning a Palestinian state encompassing East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza alongside Israel. However, settlement expansion —deemed illegal by the UN, Palestinians, and most countries, though Israel disputes this citing historical and biblical ties— has fragmented Palestinian territory.
Currently, around 700,000 Israeli settlers live there, in a region divided into three areas by the 1993-1995 Oslo Accords. Expansion intensified since Binyamin Netanyahu's return to power in 2022 and the Gaza war's start in October 2023. With a right-wing coalition, Netanyahu approved 22 new settlements in May 2025, the largest expansion in decades.
In August, far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich announced approval for over 3,400 homes in the Ma'ale Adumim (E1) settlement, which would split the West Bank and isolate it from East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel in 1980. "The Palestinian state is being erased from the negotiating table, not with slogans, but with actions," Smotrich said. In September, Netanyahu signed an agreement to advance the plan and reiterated there would be no Palestinian state.