A Guardian analysis of legal data and public records has found that Israel has not prosecuted any of its citizens for killing Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank since 2020. This has created a climate of impunity for a campaign of violence, according to the report.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to intervene, describing the violence as 'organised Jewish terrorism' carried out with the complicity of police and military. 'I have decided not only to not remain silent, but to draw the attention of the ICC in The Hague so that it may take enforcement measures and issue arrest warrants,' Olmert said.
Dozens of former Israeli security chiefs, including two former heads of the military, five former Mossad and Shin Bet chiefs, and four former police commissioners, have signed a letter warning that failure to tackle settler violence poses an existential threat. 'We are no longer talking about a handful of lawbreaking hooligans. This is organised activity, which sometimes includes those wearing uniforms, who shoot at innocent people and burn the property and homes of civilians,' the letter states.
Since 2020, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 1,100 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, at least a quarter of whom were children, according to UN data. No one has been charged over any of these deaths. The last indictment for a deadly attack by Israeli security forces was in 2019, and the last for a killing by an Israeli civilian was in 2018.
Between 2020 and 2025, over 96% of police investigations into settler violence ended without an indictment, according to the legal rights group Yesh Din. Out of 368 cases, only eight resulted in full or partial convictions. Olmert called for international prosecutions, saying the violence is 'assisted, supported and inspired by government circles' and amounts to ethnic cleansing.
