How extremist settlers coordinate organized violence to expel Palestinians

DEIR DIBWAN, WEST BANK, Dec 24 (Reuters) — The Jewish settlement outpost of Or Meir is small. A handful of prefabricated white shelters, it sits at the end of a short dirt track on a hill leading up from Route 60, a major road that dissects the West Bank.

Over time, similar modest dwellings have turned into sprawling Israeli housing developments, part of a plan that members of Israel’s cabinet acknowledge they have implemented to prevent the birth of a Palestinian state.

The process can be violent. A Bedouin family told Reuters that attackers who descended from Or Meir, hurling Molotov cocktails, drove them off Palestinian-owned land nearby last year. They fear they won’t ever be able to return.

Messages posted on Or Meir’s channel on the Telegram social media platform celebrate chasing out Bedouin herders and show the new settlers’ determination to secure lasting control over what they call “strategic” territory.

This year ​was one of the most violent on record for Israeli civilian attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to United Nations data that shows more than 750 injuries and the rapid spread of outposts throughout the land Palestinians hope will form the heart of a future state.

Israeli NGO Peace Now has recorded 80 outposts built in 2025, the most since the organization started its records in 1991. On December 21, the cabinet approved 19 more settlements, including former outposts. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the goal was to block Palestinian statehood.

For decades, groups of settlers have built outposts on West Bank land without official authorization from the state. Israeli authorities in the West Bank sometimes demolish such camps, but they often reappear, and in many cases end up being accepted by Israel as formal settlements. Smotrich has pushed efforts to formalize more outposts.

The international community — with the notable exception of the United States under President Donald Trump — considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law. Israel, which conquered the area in the 1967 Six Day War, disputes that position, citing historic ties to the region and a security imperative in holding on to it.

“Since establishing our presence on the land, we have driven away nine illegal Bedouin outposts, and returned 6,000 dunams to Jewish hands,” the account representing Or Meir’s settlers said in a post in September, using the dunam measurement equal to about 1,000 square meters, or a quarter of an acre.

Reuters could not independently confirm all the attacks on the Bedouins or determine who posted on behalf of Or Meir, which was established about two years ago. The settlers there declined to speak to the news agency.

In response to Reuters questions about intensifying settler violence in the West Bank, an Israeli official blamed a “fringe minority” and said Palestinian attacks against Israelis were underreported by the media. The Palestinian Authority did not respond to requests for comment.

Messages on the Or Meir Telegram channel, which is public, suggest a well-organized plan to take land, a finding supported by Reuters examination of a dozen other Telegram and WhatsApp groups representing similar groups, three interviews with settlers and pro-settler groups, and on-the-ground reporting around Or Meir and a new settlement.

“The evidence shows that this is a systematic pattern of violence,” said Milena Ansari, a researcher based in Jerusalem for Human Rights Watch whose work includes research on settlements in the West Bank.

The Bedouin Musabah family said they were attacked at night in June from the direction of Or Meir. Charred remains of their home and a barn were still visible to a Reuters team in December.

“We were living here, sitting in God’s safety,” said Bedouin shepherd Shahada Musabah, 39, now sheltering in the nearby Palestinian village of Deir Dibwan. “They started to set fire, and they destroyed everything. They didn’t leave us anything at all.”

In response to questions about the incident, the Israel Defense Forces told Reuters that dozens of Israeli civilians set fire to property in Deir Dibwan on the night in question. It said all suspects had left by the time security forces arrived. An official in the Deir Dibwan council told Reuters up to 60 settlers were involved, throwing stones and burning the Musabah house and other property, along with cars. Several villagers were injured by stones.

In a telephone call, Or Meir settler Elkanah Nachmani told Reuters reporters not to advance up the track to the outpost from Route 60 and not to make contact again.

Nachmani responded to a Reuters request for comment but did not address the issues raised by the questions. In the Telegram channel, Or Meir settlers accused Palestinians of poisoning their sheep in November 2024, an accusation the Musabah family denies.

Israeli monitoring group Yesh Din said that of the hundreds of cases of settler violence it documented since October 7, 2023, only 2 percent resulted in indictments.

Reuters could not confirm the group’s findings. Israel Police and the military did not respond to requests for comment.

Violence in the West Bank has soared since the Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war in October 2023.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the war started, according to the PA health ministry. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

During the same period, 63 civilians and Israeli security personnel have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes during raids in Palestinian cities in the West Bank.

Turning outposts into settlements

The Or Meir group has been open about its goals.

In November 2024, the Or Meir account posted that it aimed to settle “a strategic ridge near the settlement of Ofra,” seeking to create “a continuous Jewish settlement presence.”

Dror Etkes, an Israeli peace activist, said other outposts served the same purpose, fracturing the West Bank and “limiting the possibility of Palestinians to be in these places.”

Despite the government’s actions to recognize dozens of previously irregular outposts, the military told Reuters in a statement Or Meir “is illegal and has been evacuated several times by the security forces.” It did not provide specifics about why it considered the outpost illegal or why it was “evacuated” — the military’s word to describe closure or demolition of outposts in the West Bank.

After the most recent evacuation in March, Or Meir re-emerged with the help of over NIS 100,000 ($30,000) raised by donations, according to the settlement’s website. Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the donations.

The former outposts Israel has formalized as settlements over the years include ones previously evacuated by the army. Ofra, also on Route 60 just north of Or Meir, started as an outpost and is now a major housing development.

“Why do we continue?” asked a post by the Or Meir Telegram account in March after the evacuation. The post then answered its own question. “All breakthroughs in settlements were accomplished this way. At first, the state refused to accommodate any activity on the ground and fought it fiercely, but due to the persistence of the citizens, it eventually had to accept it.”

In December, Smotrich said 51,370 housing units had been approved for West Bank settlements since he became minister in late 2022, part of what the UN describes as the fastest expansion of settlements since its monitoring began in 2017. Smotrich’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

On September 30, the Oir Meir Telegram account published a map showing the location of the outpost. The map highlighted a large area with a blue boundary stretching to the edge of Deir Dibwan. The group said the marked area was under the control of the outpost.

At least four attacks on Palestinians have been reported within the blue boundary, according to the Deir Dibwan council, which said Palestinians could no longer access the area, including about 250 dunams belonging to the council itself.

The map also shows eight black markers, mostly within the blue boundary, listed as “abandoned Arab invasion outpost,” indicating places from which Bedouins had allegedly been ejected.

Route 505 to Jordan Valley

Route 60 is flanked by settlements. It is intersected by Route 505, running west-east toward the Jordan Valley, and also lined with settlements, including Evyatar near the Palestinian town of Beita.

Evyatar began as a tented outpost in 2019. It was evacuated in 2021 but secured government recognition in 2024. Malkiel Barhai, Evyatar’s mayor, credited Smotrich for the approval.

Speaking in Evyatar with a pistol tucked into his trousers that he said was for protection, Barhai said the settlement was vital to keep Route 505 open “because we have Arab villages, hostile Arab villages, around.”

A member of the Beita municipality claimed to Reuters that settlers from surrounding outposts or settlements, including Evyatar, killed 14 people in the area around Beita between 2021 and 2024. Reuters could not verify the deaths or who was responsible.

On November 8, Reuters witnessed an attack by settlers wielding sticks and clubs and hurling large rocks as Palestinians harvested olives close to Beita. Two Reuters employees — a journalist and a security adviser — were among those injured.

Barhai denied that settlers were behind attacks and blamed Palestinians for violence.

Samer Younes Ali Bani Shamsah, a farmer who lives near Evyatar and whose leg was broken in a settler attack, said he would not leave the land no matter the cost.

“This is my place, my home. Where would I go?” he said.

A hill over, another outpost stood, above a hill of olive trees.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.