Palestinians Clash With Israeli Forces During Protest Against New Settlement Outpost in West Bank Village

Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops on Friday during a protest march in the northern occupied West Bank village of Raba, where a new Israeli settlement outpost was recently established.

“We came to this area to express our protest and say: ‘this land is ours, not yours’,” said Ghassan Bazour, head of the Raba village council, speaking to AFP.

While all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are deemed illegal under international law, outposts such as the one erected in Raba are also prohibited under Israeli law.

An AFP journalist on the ground reported that a group of men waving Palestinian flags and those of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party marched from Raba toward a nearby hill, where settlers had established the outpost overnight. After holding Friday prayers at the foot of the hill, demonstrators advanced further until Israeli soldiers intervened and dispersed the crowd using tear gas.

The Israeli army did not respond to AFP’s request for comment on the incident.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, its teams treated 13 people who suffered from tear gas inhalation.

Bazour said settlers had seized the hilltop to set up the outpost in a move aimed at denying Palestinians access to their agricultural lands. “There is now a settler outpost here that will continue to devour the land and empty these areas,” added Muayad Shaaban, head of the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.

Despite the crackdown, Shaaban praised the protest, noting the rising danger Palestinians face in confronting settler activity. “This model of resistance must be applied throughout the West Bank. I call for massive marches… to stop this aggression, this terrorism,” he said.

Violence in the occupied West Bank has escalated sharply since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel triggered the ongoing war in Gaza. Since then, at least 956 Palestinians — including militants — have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers, according to the Palestinian health ministry. In the same period, at least 36 Israelis, including soldiers, have died in Palestinian attacks or during military operations, according to Israeli official figures.