Israeli settlers have once again taken matters into their own hands, this time by forcefully expelling Palestinian farmers from their land near Ramallah and vandalising vital water infrastructure serving thousands of families. The latest assault, in the town of Shuqba, saw armed settlers storm private farmland and threaten Palestinians at gunpoint. Footage circulating online shows a settler pushing a young farmer before firing a warning shot into the air.

Just hours later, another settler group targeted the Ain Samia area east of Ramallah, where they destroyed signage and equipment belonging to the regional water authority. The facilities they attacked are lifelines for dozens of communities across the central West Bank. One of the area’s main wells, which had already been sabotaged earlier this week, now teeters on the brink of collapse.

These aren’t isolated acts of vandalism, they are part of a broader campaign of settler expansion, increasingly aimed at seizing control of natural resources with impunity. Palestinian officials and rights groups accuse Israeli forces of providing settlers with protection, if not outright support, as they escalate efforts to drive Palestinians from their land.

In the shadow of Gaza’s devastation, violence in the West Bank intensifies by the day. But unlike airstrikes, the damage here is slower, calculated, and deeply rooted in the land and lifelines of Palestine.