File photo : Palestinians stand on the remains of a school with a Palestinian flag after it was demolished by Israeli military in the village of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank .AP
The herding community of Shi’b Al-Butum, home to some 300 Palestinians, is one of the 12 communities that make up the area of Masafer Yatta (also spelt Mosfaret Yatta), south of Hebron, and that for decades has been subjected to growing state-backed settler attacks and oppressive measures by the Israeli occupation, Amnesty stated in a new report.
“The situation of the Shi’b Al-Butum community is a microcosm of what Palestinians, in particular herding and Bedouin communities, are facing across most of the occupied West Bank. Settlers trespass on their land, vandalize and steal their property, harass and physically assault them with total impunity,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.
“Through the cumulative impact of decades of occupation and apartheid, including violence, institutionalized discrimination and illegal settlement expansion, Israel is deliberately creating a coercive environment that as a result drives Palestinians like those in the Shi’b Al-Butum off their land. Unlawful transfer –the forced removal of civilians against their will – is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and amounts to a war crime.”
Photo by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Since the beginning of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza on 7 October 2023, a spike in state-backed settler violence along with military assaults by the occupation army has resulted in the forced displacement of Palestinians across the West Bank.
These include the implementation of new military seizure orders, a sharp increase in the destruction of Palestinian property, as well as the participation in, support for, or failure to prevent and punish settler attacks against Palestinians, Amnesty said.
Israeli human rights organizations, including Yesh Din and Haqel, have also documented the failure of Israeli law enforcement to protect Palestinian residents in the unlawfully occupied West Bank, the international organization added.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 2024 was the worst year for colonial settler violence across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the organization began keeping records 20 years ago.
Between 7 October 2023 and 31 December 2024, OCHA documented 1,860 incidents of settler violence that led to the displacement of over 300 families (1,762 people, including 856 children). OCHA also recorded a rise in the number of violent settler attacks in the West Bank from an average of two a day in 2022 to four a day in 2024.
More than 480 Palestinians, including 91 children, were killed across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 2024. Most were killed by Israeli forces, according to OCHA's January report.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli troops and terrorist settlers have killed at least 900 Palestinians in the occupied territory since the start of the Gaza war.
In its report, Amnesty International documented how the intensification of the coercive environment created by Israel, including through state-backed settler violence, has already led to the forced displacement of the herding community of Zanuta in the south Hebron hills. Shi’b Al-Butum is now facing a similar fate.
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