ARCHIVE: Israeli security data shows a sharp rise in extremist settler violence in the occupied West Bank. In the first half of 2026, Israeli security agencies recorded 660 incidents of 'nationalistic crime' by extremist settlers, a 63 percent increase from the same period in 2025. These attacks killed six Palestinians and wounded 140 more. Over 100 Palestinian communities have been fully or partially displaced since January 2023 due to settler attacks and settlement expansion. Despite sanctions from six Western countries, the Israeli government has allocated $1.3 million to Ahavat Gilad, an organization linked to settler violence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the perpetrators as 'a handful of kids.' But Israel's own Institute for National Security Studies calls it a strategic threat, warning that 'democracies that fail to restrain radical forces within them do not survive.'
