ISRAELI OCCUPIED WEST BANK, 07 March.  - (ANA) - Extremist Israeli settlers have increased their attacks on Palestinians and their villages, amid the ongoing joint US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

 

According to reports, Israeli settlers have escalated their attacks on residents under the protection of the army, while Israeli forces close checkpoints.

 

Israeli media on Friday said settlers harassed Palestinians in the village of Duma, forcing residents out of their homes.

 

Israeli police arrived at the scene, but left shortly after without launching an investigation or taking action, a move Palestinians say is a recurring pattern which allows settlers to continue their attacks without consequences.

 

Yesh Din, a Tel-Aviv rights group that focuses on the protection of Palestinians’ human rights, said they documented 50 cases of settler attacks in the four days that followed the war on Iran.

 

Reports in Israeli media further confirmed footage shared on social media which showed settlers swinging clubs and physically assaulting Palestinians. Some of the settlers were accompanied by dogs, further used to harass residents.

 

Duma’s mayor, Hussein Dawabsheh, told reporters that the army had prevented the movement for all Palestinians, including the elderly and the sick.

 

"On Monday, we tried to coordinate the evacuation of an 88-year-old patient, but [the army] refused. The village is surrounded by settlers, so it’s impossible to leave on foot," he said.

 

Meanwhile, new iron gates were installed across the West Bank in the wake of the attack on Iran, +972 Magazine reported.

 

The publication noted that in the hours following the strikes on Tehran, the Israeli army shut checkpoints around the occupied West Bank, and blocked key roads between cities.

 

The army has imposed heavy restrictions on the movement of people, with soldiers distributing leaflets that state the military imposed “a pre-emptive security cordon around the entire Judea and Samaria area…until further notice".

 

The official Palestinian Wafa news agency also reported on Friday that Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian child in Khribet Makhoul, near the Jordan Valley. Local sources told the agency that the child has been identified as Ahmed Burhan Basharat, noting that he was assaulted while he was tending to his father’s livestock.

 

Also on Friday, Palestinian media said Israeli settlers bulldozed Palestinian farmland and uprooted dozens of olive trees on the outskirts of the town of Turmusayyah, located northeast of Ramallah.

 

The move was done to pave the way for a settlement.

 

Palestinian activists have drawn parallels between the surge of settler attacks following the strikes on Iran, and the sweeping arrests and attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank following the launch of the war on Gaza in October 2023.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/07 March 2026 - - -