Palestinians and Israeli activists reported ongoing harassment by extremist settlers close to the Palestinian village of Duma on Thursday, despite the IDF imposing a closed military zone order over the area.

The harassment reportedly saw the Palestinian residents of one dwelling in the northern West Bank area abandon their homes on Thursday, the second such compound said to be abandoned this week due to the settler violence.

Israeli human rights activists documented extremist settlers entering the Palestinian dwellings on Thursday, accompanied by dogs and with a herd of sheep, and confronting and harassing the residents.

The activists alleged that the police arrived at the scene but left shortly afterwards without taking action.

The IDF and police did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Times of Israel.

The settler violence against the Duma residents comes against the backdrop of a spike in such attacks since the beginning of the conflict with Iran on Saturday, said the Yesh Din organization, which reported 50 incidents of settler violence in the four days following the outbreak of the war.

The closed military zone order was issued by the commander of the IDF’s Samaria Regional Brigade and countersigned by the commander of the IDF’s Judea and Samaria Division on March 2. It covers a large tract of land on which Bedouin herders live outside Duma. It is in effect until April 2.

Such orders are, in theory, intended to prevent friction between local Palestinian residents and settlers, but activists have filmed and photographed extremists repeatedly entering the Bedouin compounds, destroying property, and harassing residents since the order was imposed.

Palestinians in Duma have faced violence and harassment by extremist settlers since the beginning of this week. Footage published by activists on Monday, the day the order was issued, showed two assailants, appearing to be extremist settlers, swinging clubs menacingly toward residents and activists, physically assaulting them and pepper-spraying them.

The Torat Tzedek human rights organization, which brings volunteer activists to assist vulnerable Palestinian communities at the communities’ invitation, has said it opposed the closed military zone order around Duma, since it means the group can no longer provide help to the communities under threat.

The organization alleged that the IDF and police have, at the same time, refrained from enforcing the order against the extremists, and have failed to provide protection to Palestinian residents in the face of the settler violence.

Torat Tzedek sent a letter on Tuesday to the legal adviser of the Civil Administration agency within the Defense Ministry to either annul the closed military zone order or amend it to enable the human rights activists to remain in the Bedouin compounds.

The organization also requested that the Civil Administration protect the Bedouin residents facing violence and harassment from the settlers.

Footage taken by activists in the Bedouin compounds showed one extremist settler activist — sporting ritual fringes and peot (religious sidelocks) and holding a large stick — present in the residences and harassing and confronting the Palestinian residents.

Another settler activist, also with tzitzit and peot and accompanied by three dogs, is shown behaving in a similar fashion, while another settler can be seen driving between compounds in an ATV vehicle commonly used by such activists to move about the rough terrain.

Activists called the Defense Ministry’s District Coordination and Liaison department repeatedly to ask for assistance in enforcing the closed military zone orders against the extremists, but no such support was sent to the site, they said.

Rabbi Arik Ascherman, head of Torat Tzedek, alleged that the army was fully aware that preventing the activists from being present in the Bedouin dwellings would help the extremist settlers chase the Palestinian residents off the land, as has happened in numerous rural Palestinian hamlets across the West Bank since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and the subsequent war.

“The closure order is one of the clearest examples of the army actively supporting the destruction of homes and expulsion [of Palestinians] by settlers,” said Ascherman.

“With hardly a peep from anybody, the army/settler collusion in Duma succeeded,” he added. “Residents of a second compound have fled. The army kicked us out with an order, in order to give free rein to settlers.”

He continued, “With eyes on Iran, the map is being withdrawn and evil is carrying the day.”

A recent ruling by the High Court of Justice determined that short-term closed military zone orders can only be issued when there is an “evidentiary foundation” that demonstrates the near certainty of a violation of public order by human rights activists.

The ruling, issued in response to a petition by the Human Rights Defenders Fund group, also stipulated that such orders rely on “concrete and tangible information, based on up-to-date intelligence information, that shows that the activists intend to disrupt public order.”

The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment, including regarding whether the commanders who signed the closed military zone order had “concrete and tangible information” that the human rights activists intended to disturb public order.

According to Yesh Din, an organization that works to safeguard Palestinian right in in the West Bank, the 50 incidents of settler violence took place from Saturday to Tuesday in 37 Palestinian communities and included fatal shootings, physical assaults, damage to property and threats.

“Under the cover of the war, settler violence is escalating with the aim of forcing Palestinians out and taking over their land. The government’s ambitions of displacing Palestinians are being carried out on the ground by violent settlers,” Yesh Din said in a statement on Thursday.

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