Israeli settlers have established new outposts in the occupied West Bank while carrying out a series of attacks against Palestinian communities, including Bedouin villages in the Jordan Valley, amid Israeli military raids and arrests in several governorates.
Hassan Malihat, general supervisor of the Al-Baydar Organisation for the Defence of Bedouin Rights, told The New Arab that settlers had established two outposts while attacks intensified across the West Bank.
"On Sunday morning, settlers began preliminary steps to establish a new outpost in an area about 500 metres away from the community of Maazi Jaba, northeast of Jerusalem," Malihat said.
He added that settlers had also established another outpost on Saturday evening on land in the Tal al-Asour area, east of Ramallah .
In Nablus, local sources said settlers had transported caravans to the summit of Mount Ebal to expand an existing outpost.
Palestinians and rights groups have long said the ouposts are part of a wider effort to displace local residents and fragment the occupied territory.
Harassment of Palestinian activists
The developments come as there has been a sharp uptick in Israeli settlers harassing Palestinian activists.
Malihat said settlers stormed the home of activist Ayed Musa Kaabneh in the Arab Al-Kaabneh community near Jericho and threatened him over his efforts to document attacks on residents and their property.
The settlers surrounded Kaabneh's home and threatened him to stop filming and publishing evidence of the attacks in what he described as an attempt to obstruct the documentation of violations targeting Bedouin communities, Malihat explained.
He said the intimidation of activists was a dangerous escalation and formed part of a broader pattern of attacks that includes home invasions, destruction of property, and assaults on residents and their livelihoods.
Malihat further told The New Arab that settlers, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, attacked residents of Arab al-Kaabneh, west of al-Auja near Jericho, before dawn on Sunday.
During the raid, they reportedly cut through a fence surrounding one home, entered the property and a sheep pen, and removed livestock in an apparent attempt to seize them.
He said settlers also attempted similar raids on neighbouring homes and animal shelters. When residents confronted them, Israeli soldiers then fired shots into the air to intimidate Palestinians while providing protection to the settlers.
The settlers claimed they were searching for lost sheep.
Malihat further said that, on Saturday evening, settlers attacked a displaced Bedouin community west of al-Auja, injuring one Palestinian after cutting through a metal fence in an alleged attempt to steal livestock.
He said the incident was part of an ongoing pattern of attacks targeting Bedouin communities and their property across the Jordan Valley.
Prominent anti-settlement activist Osama Makhamrah told The New Arab that settlers assaulted the family of Ibrahim Ismail al-Jabour in the Huwara area on Sunday morning.
He said the family was beaten and sprayed with pepper spray while Israeli forces initially prevented an ambulance from reaching the scene.
Makhamrah said five Palestinians were injured in the attack, including the elderly Ibrahim Ismail al-Jabour, three children, and a woman undergoing cancer treatment.
The victims were later taken to Yatta Governmental Hospital by Palestinian Red Crescent medics after access was eventually granted.
Local sources in southern Hebron also told The New Arab that settlers released their livestock to graze near Palestinian homes in Khirbet al-Kharaba, east of as-Samu', causing further disruption to residents and damage to their land.
Separately, Israeli forces carried out raids and arrest operations across several areas of the occupied West Bank on Sunday, detaining a number of Palestinians.
In Nablus, Israeli troops entered several neighbourhoods, deployed throughout the city, and raided at least one building.
Palestinian, Israeli, and international human rights organisations have repeatedly warned that escalating settler violence is systematically displacing Bedouin and herding communities in the occupied West Bank to facilitate the expansion of agricultural settlement outposts, often referred to as "pastoral settlements".
Amid Israel's genocidal war on Gaza , the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that 117 predominantly Bedouin and herding communities across the occupied West Bank experienced either full or partial displacement between January 2023 and April 2026 because of settler attacks and related access restrictions.