Full Breakdown
Settlement Surge and Rising West Bank Violence Ahead of Israel’s Election
8/5/2026, 10:57:20 AM
Settlement Surge Ahead of the Election
Analysts say the settlement movement has accelerated its activity as Israel prepares for national elections in October. Defence Minister Israel Katz told a Likud gathering that the coalition has approved 104 illegal settlements and about 160 settlement farms in the West Bank since the government took office in 2022, according to Israeli media reports. In 2023 he created the Settlements Administration within the Defence Ministry and, last month, legally embedded the agency there, making its decisions harder to reverse.
Political Drivers and Policy Shifts
Smotrich’s party risks missing the electoral threshold, prompting a “desperate scramble” among hard-right politicians to showcase settlement expansion as a rallying point. “He has very strong support within the settlements and the ideological far-right,” — Nimrod Flaschenberg, israeli political analyst. The prime minister also faces an ongoing corruption trial and a potential inquiry into his handling of the 2023 Hamas attack, heightening his reliance on settler backing.
Violence in the West Bank
The United Nations recently warned that attacks by Israeli settlers—often coordinated with Israeli forces—have reached an “all-time high.” The Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission recorded 2,256 attacks against Palestinians and their property in July alone, including 1,458 by the Israeli army and 798 by settlers. Rights group B’Tselem’s Yair Dvir says the violence’s scale and brutality have intensified as the election approaches “As the election gets closer, we’re seeing an even greater increase in the violence that’s been escalating ever since October 2023,” — Yair Dvir.
Official Responses
Prime Minister Netanyahu, speaking on U.S. “We saw him come out on US TV and concede that there may have been a few incidents in the West Bank, but nothing serious,” — Chatham House’s Yossi Mekelberg. In a heated parliamentary meeting, Defence Minister Katz accused opposition leader Yair Golan of spreading a “blood libel” after Golan criticized settler-linked extremism.
Verbatim Quotes
- “He has very strong support within the settlements and the ideological far-right,” — Nimrod Flaschenberg, Israeli political analyst “He has very strong support within the settlements and the ideological far-right,” — Nimrod Flaschenberg, israeli political analyst
- “We saw him come out on US TV and concede that there may have been a few incidents in the West Bank, but nothing serious,” — Yossi Mekelberg, Chatham House “We saw him come out on US TV and concede that there may have been a few incidents in the West Bank, but nothing serious,” — Chatham House’s Yossi Mekelberg
- “Netanyahu knows that the ultra-Orthodox will likely stay with him,” — Yossi Mekelberg, Chatham House “Netanyahu knows that the ultra-Orthodox will likely stay with him,” — Chatham House’s Yossi Mekelberg
- “As the election gets closer, we’re seeing an even greater increase in the violence that’s been escalating ever since October 2023,” — Yair Dvir, B’Tselem “As the election gets closer, we’re seeing an even greater increase in the violence that’s been escalating ever since October 2023,” — Yair Dvir
