Sundus al-Fukaha was watching the news at home in the occupied West Bank village of Sinjil on Saturday evening when she heard the sound of running and muffled voices outside. The next thing she knew, a molotov cocktail thrown by an Israeli settler crashed through the window, setting the sofa and curtains on fire.
In a video taken by an elderly relative, one of Sundus’ daughters, aged 12, can be seen throwing a pot of water at the blaze, while her 14-year-old sister tries to smother the flames with a cushion.
“Water didn’t work. We managed to put it out with blankets,” said Sundus, 37, surveying the broken windows and blackened ceiling during the Guardian’s visit on Wednesday.
“We are eight in this house, all women and children, some of them elderly or disabled. We have problems with the settlers in the fields but I’ve never experienced something like this.”
Sinjil, home to about 5,000 people, was one of several Palestinian towns and villages targeted by a wave of Israeli settler violence in the past few days, triggered by the implementation of a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the war in Gaza.
At least six villages across the West Bank – Sinjil, Turmus Ayya, Ein Sinya and Luban e-Sharkiya near Ramallah, and Funduq and Jinsafut, near Nablus – were targeted on Sunday and Monday night by dozens of Israeli men and boys. Many wore masks, residents said, and health authorities said 21 Palestinians were injured in the attacks.
The rioters threw molotov cocktails and rocks, breaking windows and setting several houses and cars on fire in each place they targeted in protest at the release of 90 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails in exchange for three Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The Funduq attack was also seen as revenge for a Palestinian shooting attack in the area two weeks ago, in which three Israelis were killed.
In Sinjil, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) arrived to break up the riot after about 30 minutes, but stayed at the entrance to the village, residents said. In Funduq, one Israeli was killed and another injured by what appeared to be police or IDF fire. Another two people were arrested over the violence, further stoking the settlers’ anger.
The villages were chosen, a settler activist WhatsApp group chat said, because they were homes to some of the prisoners eligible for release in the deal, named on a list published by the Israeli government.
“The first released terrorist arrived in the village of the murderers Singil. There is currently a blockade at the entrance to the village. Everyone is asked to come to protest the terrible injustice … Terrorists are not allowed to move around us,” one of the posts said, along with pictures and videos of the fires and destruction.
In fact, one person was released to Sinjil who had been held in administrative detention – a practice used by Israel and the semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority to arrest and hold individuals without charge or trial, based on secret evidence for renewable six-month terms.
“It’s not the damage or the expense, it’s the terror they cause that is the problem,” said a shopkeeper, Rafik Tafeesh, 49, whose flatbed truck was burned in the attack.
“My car didn’t do 7 October. It has nothing to do with us, but they are thugs. They don’t need an excuse,” he said, referring to the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Settlements are illegal under international law, and one of the biggest obstacles to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Settler violence is not a new phenomenon across area C, the 60% of the West Bank under Israeli civil and military control, but it has soared since far-right settler leaders were elected to Israel’s government at the end of 2022.
Since the war in Gaza began, settler violence has intensified further, displacing entire villages for the first time. On many occasions, the Israeli army has been documented failing to stop settler attacks, or even joining in.
In the past year, western countries have begun to sanction individuals implicated in settler violence and pro-settlement sources of funding and support – a rebuke to Israeli political figures such as the extremists Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who fan the flames.
But on Monday, his first day in office, the US president, Donald Trump, rescinded US sanctions against Israeli settlers, a move welcomed by the Israeli right. In his first term, Trump was tolerant of settlement expansion and moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the contested city of Jerusalem. His second stint in office is expected to be similarly supportive of Israel, for whom the US is a crucial ally.
Trump’s stance is likely to add to the sense of impunity already enjoyed by settlers: statistics published by the Israeli rights organisation Yesh Din, based on official Israeli data, found that between 2005 and 2024, just 1,701 police investigation files into settler violence were opened, despite the fact attacks are now occurring on a daily basis. Only 6.4% resulted in indictments, and 3% in full or partial convictions.
For Palestinians living near settlements, persevering with normal routines is becoming increasingly difficult. Mohammed al-Fukaha, 46, rushed to help his mother, Halima, 68, on Saturday night when her house was surrounded by settlers throwing rocks that smashed the windows. He does not want her to live alone any more, he said.
“We can’t even cross the road to our olive trees now or they’ll shoot at us,” he said of the settlers. “This is our land, and our houses, but they want us to leave for good.”
