Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian villages have increased in the occupied West Bank, even despite the accusations.
Written by: Alex Milan Durie and AFP Published: June 26, 2026.
Israeli prosecutors have indicted six people after Israeli settlers carried out attacks on villages and a mosque in the occupied West Bank.
„Six indictments have been filed for acts of terrorism, arson, sabotage and violent rioting in the village of Deir Dibwan, motivated by nationalism,” the Israeli police said in a statement on Friday.
On June 14, Israeli settlers attacked two West Bank villages.
Police said their investigation revealed that masked settlers had entered Deir Dibwan in a coordinated manner, carrying flammable materials, tear gas and knives, AFP reported.
„Upon reaching the village, they committed a series of terrorist acts, including setting fire to vegetation, burning vehicles, damaging the local mosque, attacking residential buildings, and throwing stones at vehicles and inhabited houses,” the police statement said.
At the time of the attack, witnesses told Al Jazeera that settlers poured flammable material on the window of the mosque and set it on fire while worshippers were inside.
More than 500,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank – not including occupied East Jerusalem – in settlements and outposts that are illegal under international law.
According to UN data, the number of attacks by settlers rose sharply in 2026, to about six per day.
The attacks continue
On Friday alone, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported several settler attacks and raids on Palestinian homes and villages across the West Bank. These included an attack on houses in the village of Al-Maniya, southeast of Bethlehem, actions against vehicles northwest of Ramallah, and a settler-caused fire in an agricultural field in the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah.
Wafa also reported that Israeli forces and settlers raided the Al-Ras Mosque in Hebron's Old City before dawn, assaulting those inside, preventing dawn prayers from being held, and closing the mosque to worshippers.
The Palestinian Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs condemned the raid, protesting the hoisting of Israeli flags on the mosque and the refusal to allow worshippers in.
Also on Friday, Israeli forces assaulted and detained a Palestinian man near the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied Jerusalem, Wafa reported.
Attacks in the occupied West Bank continue despite the indictment of the six settlers.
The defendants, including five minors and an 18-year-old, were charged in the Jerusalem District Court with racially motivated assault, which includes a series of acts of violence, rioting, arson committed under „terrorist” circumstances, and racially motivated vandalism, The Times of Israel reported.
Al Jazeera previously reported that Western countries such as Australia, Canada, France, Norway, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have imposed coordinated sanctions on networks that finance, enable and carry out settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
In Israel, however, Finance Minister Bezalel Szmotrics said that settler groups and their leaders had welcomed the measures as a „badge of honor,” suggesting that sanctions may have little effect on stopping settlement expansion.
Daniella Weiss, whose movement, Nachala, has held conferences on the Gaza border to discuss settlement expansion plans, described the European sanctions as „ridiculous” and „banal.”.
