Israeli settler attacks rise 13% in occupied West Bank in six months
Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have surged with 757 incidents recorded in the first half of 2025, 13% more than the same period last year, according to the UN Human Rights Office.
The violence accompanies rapid settlement expansion. Israeli NGO Peace Now reports 84 new settler outposts were established in the past year in the occupied West Bank, up from the previous year’s 49.
The UN said the attacks – frequently backed by Israeli soldiers – are pushing Palestinians off their land as part of Israel’s annexation strategy, which violates international law.
Israel pushes back on Gaza stabilisation force participation
There is a lot of back and forth regarding the international stabilisation force for Gaza. Israel wants to impose a list of conditions on who can participate, including the requirement that countries involved must be friendly towards Israel.
This really began with the veto Israel imposed on Turkiye in response to the Trump administration’s demands that Turkiye play a significant role.
The justification – as heard today from Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar – is that countries need to be at least neutral or have some form of relations with Israel, and Turkiye has proven it is not neutral.
While all of this is happening and while the truce implementation difficulties continue, you can hear from Israeli ministers such as Bezalel Smotrich that plans are being formulated for a rapid reoccupation of Gaza should the ceasefire collapse.
US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand are all definitely not neutral. Israel wants an international occupation force, nothing less.
