Dozens of radical Jewish settlers rampage through West Bank villages, torching homes and cars

Dozens of radical Jewish settlers reportedly attacked Palestinians in about 20 locations across the West Bank the night of March 21, torching homes, vehicles, and other property in what media reports described as retaliation for the death of an 18-year-old settler earlier that day.

According to the Times of Israel, footage from several affected villages — including Jalud, Fandaqumiya, Seilat al-Dahr, and Qaryut — showed buildings on fire as residents rushed to evacuate. The outlet reported that settlers hurled Molotov cocktails at homes and cars in Fandaqumiya, threw stones at Palestinians near Ramallah, and detonated an explosive device in Sebastia. 

Graffiti reading “Revenge, Yehuda” was also sprayed on a mosque in Jalud, which the Times said likely referred to Yehuda Sherman — the Israeli settler killed in a car crash earlier in the day when a Palestinian-owned vehicle struck the ATV he was riding with his brother. Police and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are reportedly examining whether the incident was deliberate.

Haaretz, citing a security source, reported 11 Palestinians were wounded in the attacks.

Ihab Hassan, a Washington-based human rights activist who has tracked West Bank violence on social media, shared footage showing a car and a home on fire. He said Bethlehem was one of the areas targeted.

A separate video from Jalud, cited by the Times, showed dozens of assailants running into a village. 

The IDF said in a statement that it had received reports of “Israeli citizens who burned buildings and property, and disturbed the peace in that area,” according to the Times. The military said it condemned “violence of any kind” and would “continue working to protect residents’ security and order in the area.”

Violence in the West Bank has intensified in recent weeks, with the Times reporting that Israeli settler attacks have become a near-daily occurrence. As Zeale News previously reported, human rights activists, organizations, and others have warned that the outbreak of the Iran war on Feb. 28 seems to have correlated with an increase in settler attacks. Diplomats from 13 European countries and Canada also issued a joint statement March 22 condemning “increasing settler terror and violence by Israeli security forces inflicted upon Palestinian communities.”

The spike in settler attacks comes amid the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank — settlements largely considered illegal under international law. In February, Israel’s cabinet decided to begin land registration in the West Bank Area C, which includes part of Palestine. As Zeale News previously reported, critics warned the move was a “de-facto annexation” of the region. 

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in February that he would work in his next term to “encourage migration” of Palestinians from the West Bank and from Gaza, according to the Times of Israel. The outlet reported that critics said such “migration” would amount to ethnic cleansing. On March 23, Smotrich also suggested that Israel should extend its border with Lebanon to the Litani River, which runs through southern Lebanon and is about 15 to 20 miles north of Israel’s border.

Church leaders have criticized the expansion of settlements as a refusal on Israel’s part to protect rightful Palestinian residents who occupy the land. Pope Leo XIV, in a Jan. 9 address to diplomats, decried that “there has been an increase in violence in the West Bank against the Palestinian civilian population, which has the right to live in peace in its own land.”