Settlers burned, at dawn on 24 September 2026, two vehicles belonging to the al-Kaabneh family in Atara village, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, and wrote racist and threatening slogans on the walls of Palestinian homes. In Burqa village, east of Ramallah, there was also an attempt to break into homes and burn agricultural land. The al-Kaabneh family lives in a rugged area, forcing it to park its vehicles some distance from its home.
Images from the site showed that the fire completely destroyed the two vehicles, leaving only their metal frames. The family said the settlers used a drone to monitor Palestinians’ movements before carrying out the attack, then infiltrated the area from a settlement outpost established on Atara village’s land.
Threatening graffiti links attack to incidents in Qusra
It added that the attackers wrote the slogans on the walls of the homes before withdrawing from the area. Journalist Tharwat Shaqra reported that the graffiti included threats linked to attacks on Palestinian families in Qusra village, south of Nablus, including the phrase: “The Qusra series will continue.”
According to residents, settlement outposts established on Palestinian land have become launching points for attacks on nearby villages and communities. Palestinians say these developments have prevented them from accessing parts of their land, amid continued attacks on homes, property and agricultural land.
Attempted break-in and burning of land in Burqa
At the same time as the attack in Atara, settlers attempted at dawn on the same day to break into Palestinian homes in Burqa village, east of Ramallah, before residents confronted them. The attempted break-in followed the burning of agricultural land owned by Palestinians in the village, as part of a series of incidents reported in various parts of the West Bank.
Palestinians believe these attacks are part of efforts to displace them from their land, amid reports that dozens of Palestinian and Bedouin communities in the West Bank have already been displaced. Families targeted in the area had previously lived in the town of Hizma, in the Jerusalem district, before moving to their current location, where they were again subjected to settler attacks.
Escalating attacks and displacement in the West Bank
Palestinian residents say they have no means of protecting themselves from these attacks, as assaults targeting homes, land and property continue in different parts of the West Bank. Since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, Israeli forces’ operations and settler attacks against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have intensified.
These operations have included killing and arresting Palestinians, demolishing homes and other structures, burning mosques and vehicles, bulldozing agricultural land and preventing farmers from reaching their fields, alongside displacement and settlement expansion. Palestinians warn that these measures are paving the way for the formal annexation of the West Bank to Israel, undermining the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state in line with relevant United Nations resolutions.
The roots of the conflict date back to 1948, when Israel was established on Palestinian land following operations carried out by armed groups that displaced at least 750,000 Palestinians. At later stages, Israeli forces took control of the remaining Palestinian territories, while the dispute over withdrawal from them and the establishment of a Palestinian state continued.
