What are West Bank settlements, who are settlers, and why are they controversial?

There are increasing reports of violence and intimidation by Israeli settlers in occupied Palestinian territory.

Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay has been inside the West Bank, where he's found settlers feeling emboldened since the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

With the government largely supporting them, they act with impunity and are in many ways enabled by Israel security forces.

But what are the settlements, and why are they controversial?

What are settlements?

A settlement is an Israeli-built village, town, or city in occupied Palestinian territory - either in the West Bank or East Jerusalem.

Thousands of homes have been demolished over the years to build the settlements, while vast areas used for farmland and grazing have also been requisitioned.

More territory has been taken to build roads and checkpoints that restrict Palestinians' movement in those areas and effectively lock out existing landowners, says Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.

Today, an estimated 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The largest settlement, Modi'in Illit, is thought to house around 82,000 people.

There is also a growing movement of Israelis wanting to build settlements in Gaza.

Settlements are illegal under international law and have been condemned by the UN. They are, however, authorised by the Israeli government.

As well as official, government-approved settlements, there are also Israeli outposts.

These are established without government approval and are considered illegal by Israeli authorities. But reports suggest the government often turns a blind eye to their creation.

In May, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government approved 22 new settlements, including the legalisation of outposts that had previously been built without authorisation.

Israel began building settlements shortly after the 1967 Six-Day War.

The Etzion Bloc in Hebron, which was established that year, now houses around 40,000 people.

Read more:
Israel-Hamas war: A glossary of terms
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A century of war, heartbreak, hope
What is the two-state solution?

According to the Israel Policy Forum, the settlement programme is intended to protect Israel's security, with settlers acting as the first line of defence "against an invasion".

The Israeli public appears divided on the effectiveness of the settlements, however.

A 2024 Pew Research Centre poll found that 40% of Israelis believe settlements help Israeli security, 35% say they hurt it, and 21% think they make no difference.

Why are they controversial?

Israeli settlements are built on land that is internationally recognised as Palestinian territory.

Sky News has spoken to multiple Palestinians who say they were forced out of their homes by Israeli settlers, despite having lived there for generations.

"They gradually invade the community and expand. The goal is to terrorise people, to make them flee," Rachel Abramovitz, a member of the group Looking The Occupation In The Eye, told Sky News in May.

Mohammed Robin, a farmer owner who's been forcibly displaced from land outside Ramallah, said it had been in his family since 1952.

"When I was growing up I used to come here and play, we used to come and visit our grandfather and grandmother," he told Sky News.

"I have to go the legal route to defend my land, but even with a legal process ... there's not much chance. This is aggression."

Mutaz Tawafsha, mayor of Sinjel - a Palestinian town nearly totally surrounded by settlements, said he believed it would eventually be completely isolated.

He showed Sky News footage of a farm being attacked - with a building being ransacked and set on fire.

Pointing out a spot in the distance, he said: "If you just try to go close to the settlers, you will see they're gonna come and start to attack you."

But settlers also told us they have a holy right to occupy the land.

American-born Israeli settler Daniel Winston told Stuart Ramsay: "God's real, and he wrote the Bible, and the Bible says, 'I made this land, and I want you to be here'."

Settlers make up around 5% of Israel's population and 15% of the West Bank's population, according to data from Peace Now.

How have things escalated since 7 October 2023?

Since the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023 and Israel's subsequent military bombardment of Gaza, more than 100 Israeli outposts have been established, according to Peace Now.

Settler violence against Palestinians has also increased, according to the UN, with an average of 118 incidents each month - up from 108 in 2023, which was already a record year.

The UK has sanctioned two far-right members of Mr Netanyahu's cabinet, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, for "repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian civilians" - notably in the West Bank. Last year, Smotrich ordered preparations for the annexation of the West Bank.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in June that the ministers had been "encouraging egregious abuses of human rights" for "months".

The UN's latest report on Israeli settlements notes that in October 2024, there were 162 settler attacks on Palestinian olive harvesters, many of them in the presence of IDF soldiers.

Of the 174 settler violence incidents studied by the UN, 109 were not reported to Israeli authorities.

Most Palestinian victims said they didn't report the attacks due to a lack of trust in the Israeli system; some said they feared retaliation by settlers or the authorities if they did.

(c) Sky News 2025: What are West Bank settlements, who are settlers, and why are they controversial?