On Saturday night, extremist Israeli settlers carried out more than 20 attacks on Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank. They burned homes, vehicles, and agricultural fields. They spray-painted "Avenge Yehuda" on a building. They blocked roads on Sunday evening. Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — who has been sanctioned by the UK and other countries for inciting violence against Palestinians — attended the funeral of the settler whose death triggered the attacks.
The violence was precipitated by the death of 18-year-old settler Yehuda Sherman, killed on Saturday after reportedly being hit by a vehicle driven by a Palestinian while on his quad bike. Police said they were investigating whether the hit was deliberate or accidental. WhatsApp groups used by settlers called for a "revenge campaign" within hours of his death, according to Haaretz.
This is not an isolated incident. It is the latest in a documented pattern that the UN says has intensified sharply since the Iran war began.
The Numbers Since the Iran War Started
Breaking those figures down: 25 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in 2026. Seven were killed by settlers; 18 by Israeli forces. Of those 25 deaths, 15 have occurred since the Iran war started on February 28 — meaning the conflict has roughly doubled the pace of violence in the West Bank, even though the West Bank is not a direct theater of the Iran conflict.
The EU and UK have both demanded Israel halt the surge in settler violence. Those demands have not produced a visible change in the pattern.
What Happened Saturday Night
The attacks targeted at least four Palestinian villages: Jalud, Qaryut, al-Funduqmiya, and Silat al-Dhah, all in the northern West Bank. More than 20 settler attacks were reported overnight, according to a defense official cited by Israeli media.
Footage shared online — which the BBC said it could not independently verify — appeared to show more than 90 individuals wearing black, many masked, running into the village of Jalud. Other footage showed multiple vehicles on fire, buildings with smashed windows, and ambulances responding to injuries. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said at least three Palestinians suffered head wounds and were taken to hospital.
The IDF confirmed the situation in an official statement — notably, it acknowledged Israeli civilians "committing acts of arson against structures and property, as well as engaging in disturbances in the area." IDF troops and border police were dispatched to the villages.
By Sunday evening, settlers were again blocking roads in the West Bank. Local news agency WAFA reported new gatherings outside Palestinian villages, with a car wash north-west of Nablus reportedly set on fire.
The Smotrich Attendance
More than 500 people attended the funeral of Yehuda Sherman on Sunday afternoon, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. This detail matters for the political record.
Smotrich leads the Religious Zionism party and has been sanctioned by the United Kingdom and other Western governments specifically for inciting violence against Palestinians. He is simultaneously Israel's finance minister — a senior member of the Netanyahu coalition government. His attendance at the funeral of a settler whose death triggered a wave of attacks on Palestinian villages, on the same night those attacks were ongoing, is a documented fact, not an interpretation.
The Israeli government has not issued a statement condemning the settler attacks as of this article's publication.
Why the Iran War Accelerates West Bank Violence
The mechanism connecting the Iran war to increased West Bank settler violence is not speculative — it is documented through prior conflict cycles and follows a consistent pattern:
Reduced IDF bandwidth. When the IDF is engaged in an active military operation — as it is now in Iran — military and intelligence resources that would normally be allocated to West Bank civilian protection are partially redirected. Settler activists, aware of this dynamic, recognize a window of reduced enforcement.
Nationalist mobilization. Active war generates nationalist sentiment that settler extremists channel into ground-level action. The same rhetorical environment that sustains public support for military operations against Iran also energizes the most ideologically motivated settler factions in the West Bank.
Coalition political dynamics. The Netanyahu government depends on far-right coalition partners — including Smotrich's Religious Zionism party and Itamar Ben Gvir's Otzma Yehudit — whose voter bases include settler communities. The political incentive to suppress settler violence is structurally reduced when the government depends on those communities for its majority.
This pattern held during the 2023 Gaza conflict, when settler violence in the West Bank reached documented highs. The UN and human rights organizations documented it then; the same organizations are documenting the same pattern now.
The West Bank: Background Numbers
The scale of Israeli settlement in the West Bank requires context for anyone reading about this conflict without prior background:
The settlements are illegal under international law — a position held by the United Nations, the International Court of Justice (which issued an advisory opinion in 2004), and the governments of most UN member states. Israel disputes this characterization. The United States under the first Trump administration in 2019 reversed a prior US position and declared the settlements not illegal under US policy; that reversal has not been undone under the current administration.
International Response
The EU and UK have both formally demanded Israel halt the surge in settler violence since the Iran war began. Neither demand has produced a visible behavioral change. The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attacks as occurring during Eid al-Fitr — the same holy day during which a drone struck a hospital in Sudan killing 64 people.
No major government has imposed new sanctions in response to the settler attacks this weekend. The UK has existing sanctions on Smotrich — they predate this weekend's events.
The IDF confirmed the arson. The Finance Minister attended the funeral. The EU and UK have demanded action. None of those three facts have produced a visible change in the pattern.