UN rapporteur warns of ethnic cleansing as settlers establish new West Bank outposts

Israeli settlers have erected tents to establish a new illegal settlement outpost in the Wadi Zeytun area near Umm Safa, northwest of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. Concurrently, separate groups of settlers began establishing an outpost in the village of Burqa on the same day. According to reporting from Al Jazeera’s Tharwat Shakra, settlers have seized approximately 4,700 dunams of land in Umm Safa and 10,000 dunams in Burqa. If these new outposts are formalised, the number of outposts surrounding the two neighbouring villages will rise to six, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The expansion of settler infrastructure coincides with a second week of siege against three Palestinian families in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus. Fifteen Palestinians, including two children, remain besieged in their homes in the Ras al-Ain area. Israeli soldiers rotated their positions and erected a tent in front of the residents’ homes after dismantling a settler tent that had been attempted previously. Municipal crews later restored electricity and water lines to the area, while Israeli forces maintained a presence around the besieged properties.

Violence and arrests have escalated in other parts of the West Bank. In Beit Imrin, north of Nablus, settlers attacked a Palestinian home and detained those inside before Israeli forces arrived and arrested nine people. Soldiers also blocked Palestinian Red Crescent teams from reaching the area and confiscated the keys to ambulances and medical-relief vehicles. Additional incidents included attacks in the Nab’a al-Kaabneh community near Taybeh, an attempted raid on a home in Turmus Aya, and injuries sustained by Palestinians in Hebron’s al-Jaabari neighbourhood, some from gunfire.

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, described the situation as a climax of Israel’s decades-long rule of impunity. Speaking to Al Jazeera, she stated that Israel is using settlers to advance ethnic cleansing and has outsourced coercion to them. Albanese characterised the actions as crimes requiring investigation and prosecution, linking current events to the Nakba of 1948 and describing the means as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide.

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Al Jazeera that settler groups carry out an average of 30 attacks every day. He described the campaign as one aimed at annexation and displacement, calling for Arab and international pressure on Washington to halt Israeli actions. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society noted that Israeli forces have escalated arrests in towns where illegal settler outposts have been established, targeting residents who confront the attacks. Approximately 750,000 Israeli settlers currently live in 156 illegal settlements and 360 illegal outposts across the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, areas the UN recognises as illegal under international law.