For Jamila Rashid, Ras Ein el-Auja, a Palestinian-Bedouin village in the southern Jordan Valley, was home for her family for decades.

But in early January, she was forced to leave.

"The harassment by Israeli settlers had become unbearable," said Rashid, a young mother, as she stood leaning on the metal doorframe of her home in Ras Ein el-Auja in the occupied West Bank.

Nearby, a few suitcases and other belongings sat in the corner, neatly packed. "There is no safety left. We've been suffering for three years, but now the provocations increased," Rashid told DW, speaking of how settlers entered their home. "Yesterday, honestly, they entered our kitchen. The kids got so scared."

Surge in settler violence

The past year has seen a surge in settler violence against Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank. Attacks by settlers have increased since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing war in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, and Israeli domestic security agency Shin Bet say that the number of attacks by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinians and Israeli forces rose by 27% in 2025 compared to the previous year. 

And since January 2023, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has documented more than 700 Palestinian families whose displacement was linked to settler violence in the West Bank. 

Among them were primarily Bedouin and herding communities in Area C, which makes up 60% of the West Bank and is under full Israeli administrative and security control.

According to Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, at least 44 communities have been completely forced out since October 2023.

How Palestinians are being forced out

The situation in Ras Ein el-Auja began to deteriorate in late December 2025, when Israeli settlers established an illegal outpost inside the village. They plowed the land with tractors and blocked a road leading to one side of the community.

Local man Salameh Qa'abna had witnessed several attacks by settlers and their attempts to close in on the community in recent years. But when the settlers established the small outpost just a few dozen meters from his home and family, any remaining sense of safety quickly disappeared.

"They prevented us from using the road and blocked the water tanks," said Qa'abna, looking over at the nearby outpost, where two settlers were standing with their donkey. "At night, several of them came close to our living quarters. The children were terrified."

An estimated 130 people from several extended families were forced to dismantle their homes and leave the village earlier this month due to ongoing settler attacks on the community. Rashid and her young family will now join them. "This is humiliating, it's painful," she said. "I mean, is there anything harder than demolishing your own home with your own hands? And we don't even know where we will go."

Many others were also packing on that cold, sunny, winter day in the Jordan Valley amid the bleats and brays of nearby goats, sheep and donkeys. The animals are the main source of livelihood for people in the village but most had been confined to their pens for weeks, as it had become too unsafe to let them out to pasture. Now, some were being loaded onto small pickup trucks and driven away, along with other belongings, while young men from nearby Ramallah were helping the villagers to dismantle the pens and homes. 

Another village man Mohammed Abu Fadi watched the proceedings with grim disbelief, not yet sure whether he would leave or stay. "Every day and night, they come with horses, they harass. All of it impacts on the children, the little ones, the animals, even the birds — this is not human behavior," he said. 

A pattern of harassment

The situation in Ras Ein el-Auja — which is surrounded by several illegal settlements and outposts — is not unique.

This pattern has repeated itself in many other Palestinian communities, such as nearby Muarrajat and Mughayyir al-Deir. There as well, settlers set up outposts in the center of the villages, escalated their attacks and forced people out in a short matter of time.

According to the anti-settlement watchdog, Peace Now, there are over 149 settlements scattered across the West Bank, in addition to 224 small unauthorized outposts and farms.

The settlements are illegal under international law but Israel disputes this. Settlement expansion has been promoted by successive Israeli governments since it captured and occupied the West Bank in the 1967 war.

Under the current hard-line government, settlers have been appointed to senior government positions. Recently, the government announced the establishment or legalization of 19 new settlements, as well as the implementation of a controversial plan known as E1, which will divide the West Bank in two. Most of the international community, including Germany, perceives the growing number of settlements as a major obstacle to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

'Protective presence' 

Back in Ras Ein el-Auja, a young Israeli settler guided his flock of sheep through the Palestinian village, closely trailed by international and Israeli activists from what are known as "protective presence groups." These are people who stay in the village 24 hours a day, every day, to shield the community from settler attacks. Some stay alongside families near their homes.

From their base on a small hill in the village, the activists have been monitoring the settlers' movements. But they had to admit there was little they could do.

"Right now, we can only protect them [the Palestinians] while they are packing and help them leave this place safely," Neta Ben Porat, an activist with the anti-settlement NGO Looking the Occupation in the Eye, told DW.

In recent days, she said, Israeli settlers had brought several sheep and goat herds to the village. "There are dozens of settlers every minute in the village, harassing, stealing, beating, intimidating, filming in the houses, riding horses in the backyards. The residents can't sleep, can't rest, they need to be alert all the time. Many decided that they can't live that way and decided to leave," she explained.

What is Israel's government doing about it?

The Palestinians and anti-settlement activists say that the Israeli government leaves these attacks unchecked and there is hardly any accountability for perpetrators.

Israeli activist Amir Pansky described the situation in Ras Ein el-Auja as "heartbreaking," as they had known the families in the village for years. 

"The state of Israel, the regional municipality are doing it [occupation] with proxies, with these kids, the shepherds, that are harassing and attacking the community here all night, all day long. They are backed by the army, the police, the state and the [Israeli] authorities in the West Bank," Pansky suggested. 

In March 2025, Israeli settlers stole herds of sheep and goats overnight from several farmers in the village, violently injuring and killing some of the animals before taking them to an illegal farming outpost. Despite providing evidence of the animals' whereabouts, requests to the police and army were not followed up and didn't lead to the animals being brought back to their owners.

When asked by DW what it was doing to protect the villagers, the IDF said in a statement that it had recently increased the presence of soldiers and that it was aware of the incidents.

"IDF soldiers enter the area in accordance with calls and operational needs, aiming to prevent friction between populations and to maintain order and security in the area," the IDF said, adding that "soldiers who encounter incidents of lawbreaking by Israeli citizens, or acts directed against Palestinians or their property, are required to intervene and, if necessary, detain or arrest the suspects until police arrive at the scene." 

In Ras Ein el-Auja, Rashid, Qa'abna and other relatives have finally decided to leave and take their families to safety.

Within a day, both the inhabitants and their animals had disappeared from the one side of the village. Only the skeletal remains of shacks stood as testament to the fact that people had lived there for years.

Edited by: C. Schaer