Related
For more than 40 minutes, Mohammed pleaded with them to let his family continue.
He contacted Palestinian officials but remained stranded.
“I was standing there watching my wife in front of me, pregnant, unable to help her,” he says.
Eventually he took an almost deserted side road and reached the hospital after nightfall. By then, it was too late to prevent complications.
“The fluid around the baby had broken inside the car,” Mohammed says.
Mohammed says the prolonged delay deprived the baby of oxygen, leaving him with brain damage and a mental disability.
“My son did not choose any of this,” he says.
“He will carry the consequences of that night for the rest of his life.”
For Mohammed, the attack permanently changed how he viewed daily life.
“It was about feeling that your life and your family’s life can be controlled by someone who decides whether you continue or not.”
He says attacks have become increasingly unpredictable.
“They appear on roads, enter villages and stop people from reaching their work, hospitals or schools.
“How can anyone live like this?”
Presenting official figures on Monday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Shahin said that 11,074 violations by Israeli forces and settlers were documented across the occupied Palestinian territory in the first half of 2026, of which 3,488 were attributed to settlers.
The figures show that at least 86 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank during that period, including 21 killed directly by settlers.
They also recorded the displacement of 26 Bedouin communities and the establishment of 42 new settlement outposts, most of them pastoral.
For Saeed Al-Najjar, settler violence has reshaped his children’s future.
In Osarin, south of Nablus, the 46-year-old construction worker remembers the day his 12-year-old son Jad left for school but returned only minutes later.
His hands were shaking. His school uniform was torn, and cuts marked his mouth and nose.
“He came back after only 15 minutes,” Saeed tells TRT World.
“He could barely speak. His eyes were full of tears.”
Encouraging settlement expansion
Saeed says settlers stopped Jad on the road, searched him, beat him and that one of them attempted to touch him inappropriately.
Afterwards, Jad stopped talking about school. Instead, he asked to work with his father.
“He decided to leave education even though he was one of the best students,” Saeed says.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 4,000 settler-related incidents were recorded between 2023 and 2025, among the highest levels since the agency began monitoring.
The UN has also documented the killing of Palestinians by Israeli settlers during the same period.
The rise in violence has coincided with increasingly supportive rhetoric from senior Israeli officials.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has repeatedly encouraged settlement expansion, telling settlers to “go to the hilltops and occupy them. We love you.”
Shahin said the figures also recorded the seizure of 4,379 dunums of Palestinian land during the first half of 2026, while Israeli authorities advanced 113 settlement master plans—71 in the occupied West Bank and 42 in occupied East Jerusalem.
During the same period, the Israeli military carried out 341 demolitions, destroying 740 structures.
She added that 45 mosques in the occupied West Bank were targeted, including five that were burned and five that were demolished or partially destroyed.
According to the official data, 45,195 trees were uprooted or damaged by Israeli forces or settlers over the same period.
Shahin said the sharp rise in settler violence has made it increasingly difficult for Palestinians to remain on their land, pointing to the loss of livelihoods and security, the psychological toll on children and families, and the growing instability facing Palestinian communities.
Saeed’s concern extends beyond Jad.
“I am not only worried about my son,” he says. “I have four children. I do not know how to protect them all,” he tells TRT World.
“My children have the right to learn, but I cannot guarantee their safety.”
