The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Sunday that the occupied West Bank is witnessing a "silent war" amid record levels of violence by the Israeli army and settlers since October 2023.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini's comments came on the same day the occupying forces issued yet another evacuation order for a Bedouin community in the central West Bank.
"Tens of thousands of people remain displaced a year after the launch of Israel's operation 'Iron Wall' – the largest displacement since 1967. Their homes are now gradually demolished to prevent their return," Lazzarini said on X social media.
On Jan. 21, the Israeli army launched a large-scale military operation in the northern West Bank, killing scores and displacing thousands.
Lazzarini added that more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied territory since October 2023, almost a quarter of them children.
"Attacks by Israeli settlers continue unabated, with Palestinian communities being constantly intimidated, uprooted + their livelihoods ruined," he said. "Impunity reigns."
The UNRWA chief stressed that the agency still plays a key role in providing emergency aid in the West Bank "despite immense challenges."
"While global attention has been focused on Gaza, the flagrant disregard for international humanitarian law in the West Bank has been normalized. It has to stop before it is too late."
The Israeli army and illegal settlers have escalated their assaults in the West Bank since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.
New Bedouin displacements
Earlier Sunday, the Israeli army ordered residents of a Bedouin community in the central West Bank to evacuate and detained three foreign activists, residents said.
Mustafa Kaabneh, a resident of the Khalayel Bedouin encampment south of the village of al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah, told Türkiye's Anadolu Agency (AA) that soldiers entered the community early Sunday, delivered a military evacuation order and arrested three foreign solidarity activists.
Kaabneh said the encampment’s 11 families reject the order, fearing illegal settlers would move in. He said residents were displaced two years ago from the nearby Ein Samiya area in Kafr Malik village following pressure and repeated attacks by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, who later pursued them to their current location.
Another resident, Najeh Kaabneh, told AA that illegal settler attacks have intensified after Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023 and have continued nearly daily, intending to force residents to leave.
Illegal settlers have restricted grazing, carried out threats and assaults and established an outpost next to the encampment, while Israeli forces have seized vehicles and detained residents, he added.
According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, an official body, illegal Israeli settlers carried out nearly 4,723 attacks against Palestinians and property in the occupied West Bank in 2025, killing 14 Palestinians and forcing the displacement of 13 Bedouin communities of 1,090 people.
The number of illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank reached 770,000 in more than 180 settlements and 256 settlement outposts by the end of 2024, official Palestinian data showed.
The U.N. said Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law and undermine prospects for a two-state solution.
According to Palestinian figures, Israeli forces and illegal settlers have killed at least 1,110 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and injured at least 11,500 others since October 2023.
The International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal in a landmark opinion in July 2024 and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.