Ammon News - UK Minister of State for the Middle East Stephen Doughty has condemned escalating Israeli colonist violence in the occupied West Bank, calling for an end to the ongoing violence and terrorism perpetrated by Israeli colonists.

“The shocking, appalling settler violence and settler terrorism we are seeing, yet again, in the West Bank - must end,” Doughty wrote on X amid a sharp rise in attacks by Israeli colonists against defenseless Palestinian communities across the West Bank.

Doughty expressed particular concern over the recent events in the town of Qusra, south of Nablus, where Israeli settlers and the army have been laying siege to at least two Palestinian homes, and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Israeli colonists carried out 3,488 attacks during the first half of 2026 against Palestinian villages, towns, residents and property. The attacks included assaults and shootings, arson attacks on homes, attacks on roads and vehicles, the establishment of colonial outposts and the seizure of Palestinian land.

The commission said 17 Palestinians were killed by colonists during the period, while 42 new colonial outposts were established and 4,379 dunums of Palestinian land were seized.

The UK government has previously described settlement expansion and colonist violence as illegal and a threat to the viability of a two-state solution. In June, Britain and several allies imposed coordinated sanctions on individuals and organizations who finance or enable colonist violence in the occupied West Bank.