Attacks targeting water sources, livestock, energy and homes in Area C of the West Bank have undermined Palestinian communities’ ability to remain, amid rights reports documenting the complete or partial departure of 5,900 Palestinians from 107 communities since October 2023.
Among those affected is 76-year-old Ahmad Mahmoud Ahmad Hammamdeh, who left his land near al-Mufaqara in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, on October 8, 2023. Hammamdeh said settler attacks had begun earlier, then escalated to prevent him from grazing his sheep and block the road to his home.
According to his account, his home was demolished, followed by the destruction of a tent where he had sought shelter. A water well, solar panels, beehives, trees and the fence around the house were also damaged. He added that he moved to a nearby community after receiving death threats and was unable to return despite repeated attempts.
Area C contains the worst-affected communities
The affected communities are located in Area C, which accounts for 61% of the West Bank and is under full Israeli control under the divisions set out in the 1995 Oslo II Accord. About 354,000 Palestinians live there.
Amir Abu Daoud, documentation official at the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, said that between January 23, 2024, and January 26, 2026, there were 63 attacks related to water and wells. Israeli forces were blamed for 38 and settlers for 25.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said water tanks accounted for more than half of the water, sanitation and hygiene facilities damaged, destroyed or seized during settler attacks across the West Bank. In 2025, the office documented an average of 25 incidents a month that affected Palestinians’ access to water and increased their reliance on emergency water deliveries by tanker.
The office said attacks on shared infrastructure serving entire communities had increased, noting that water networks were sabotaged in at least six communities during June. Since the beginning of 2026, tanker water has been supplied to about 60 communities and sites hosting displaced families, particularly in Masafer Yatta and the northern Jordan Valley.
Attacks target roads, grazing lands and trees
The Israeli rights group B’Tselem said armed settlers were blocking roads, preventing access to grazing lands and water sources, and attacking residents, property and livestock. It added that Israel had seized more than 1,070,000 dunams through settler groups by July 2026, equivalent to 18% of the West Bank, and that 185 settlement outposts were established between 2023 and 2025, including about 130 farm outposts.
According to data from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, about 56,500 trees were uprooted or damaged, most of them olive trees that provide their owners with an income. Livestock, on which herding communities rely for food, income and savings, have also been targeted.
Hassan Maleehat, director of the al-Baidar rights organisation, said more than 16,800 livestock had been looted since the beginning of 2025, including about 300 head from the al-Hayyan area of Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, on Tuesday.
Maleehat said targeting herds limits families’ ability to continue herding and use grazing lands, causing economic and social losses for Bedouin and pastoral families that rely on sheep and goats as a main source of food and capital. The attacks have also targeted electricity poles, cables, networks, transformers, solar panels and storage batteries.
Employees of the Southern Electricity Company were attacked in the Wadi al-Rakhim area of Masafer Yatta while trying to repair poles that, according to the source, settlers had cut down and whose connected network they had damaged. Maleehat said remote communities use solar power for lighting, operating water pumps, preserving food, charging communication devices, and running household and agricultural equipment.
Comprehensive pressure drives residents to leave
He said targeting livestock, energy, water and homes amounted to comprehensive pressure that gradually pushed residents to leave their land. The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission recorded more than 56,000 attacks by settlers and Israeli forces against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank between October 7, 2023, and June 30, 2026.
It also recorded the demolition of 1,400 Palestinian structures during 2025, including 304 inhabited homes, 270 economic structures and 490 agricultural structures, as well as 740 structures in the first half of 2026, including 295 inhabited homes and 359 agricultural and economic structures.
