Clashes and Attacks Reported Between Israeli Settlers and Palestinians Across West Bank

Israeli settlers launched raids across the occupied West Bank on May 8-9 2026, setting cars on fire, torching a home and attacking Palestinians in several villages and towns. A Palestinian man and his child were attacked with sharp instruments in the village of Khirbet Shuweika south of Hebron on May 8 2026.

The father and child suffered head injuries and were taken to hospital, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

Israeli settlers torched a home in the village of al-Lubban Asharqiya south of Nablus on May 8-9 2026. Palestinian Civil Defence members extinguished the fire at the torched home. In Abu Falah northeast of Ramallah, settlers stormed the outskirts of the village, burned a citizen’s vehicle and wrote racist slogans on the walls of houses, according to Wafa.

The same wave of raids saw settlers attack a Palestinian man in the town of Beit Fajjar south of Bethlehem and steal his mobile phone. A group of Palestinians picnicking in the Burak Sulayman, also known as Solomon’s Pools, area south of Bethlehem were forced to leave after Israeli forces fired stun grenades at them.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society treated two people for tear gas inhalation and evacuated five others from the scene.

In the town of Tuqu southeast of Bethlehem, Israeli forces fired tear gas and sound bombs at a group of worshippers leaving a local mosque. Taysir Abu Mufreh, the mayor of Tuqu, told Wafa that forces locked a number of the worshippers inside after the assault.

Israeli forces arrested four Palestinian men in the town of Battir west of Bethlehem on May 8 2026 while they were hiking near a railway line.

The following day, three more Palestinians were arrested during a raid on the city of Nablus. Settlers attacked the town of Silwad northeast of Ramallah on May 8-9 2026, leading to clashes with residents who confronted them. In a separate incident in the village of al-Asa’asa in Jenin, Israeli forces forced residents to exhume a newly buried body and relocate it because the site was too close to an illegal Israeli settlement.

Al Jazeera reported that dozens of Israeli settlers had stormed various areas of the West Bank during the two days. Human rights groups say Israeli authorities have allowed settlers to operate with total impunity in their attacks against Palestinians. Israel approved a plan to claim large areas of the occupied West Bank as state property in February 2026.

More than 700000 Israelis live in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israeli soldiers took security measures during a raid in the Old City of Hebron on February 14 2026.