English translation AI-generated with TF1 Video transcript

Let’s now turn to the Middle East. For the past three years, since the attacks of 7 October, all eyes have been on the Gaza Strip. But another Palestinian territory is also a scene of conflict: the West Bank.

Israeli colonisation, illegal under international law, is now running rampant. With the approval of the Israeli government, there are 700,000 settlers for 3 million Palestinians. Radical Israelis are accused of hundreds of attacks. It is a difficult situation to report on, as these settlers regularly target journalists. Lise Ron Boudoul and Philippe de Poulpiqué went there to investigate.

We leave Tel Aviv, with its beaches and its easygoing lifestyle. Just a few kilometres further on, the contrast is striking. This is the road leading to the West Bank. It runs alongside endless fences separating Israeli towns from Palestinian towns.

We are now in Palestinian territory. It is saturated with Israeli flags. The Israeli army is stationed at every junction.

This afternoon, in Ramallah, it is impossible to go any further. The army has built new checkpoints, like this one. We are told to turn back. Palestinians find themselves blocked on their own territory. A few minutes later, these soldiers decide to close the crossing altogether.

All around us, we notice Israeli settlements spreading across the hills. There are now more than 400, shown in red on this map. Nearly 700,000 settlers live there. Palestinian territory is shrinking.

All these settlements are illegal under international law, and some are even illegal under Israeli law, like this one.

What we can see at the very top of the hill is an outpost. In other words, it is a completely illegal settlement that has just been established.

There are some settlers over there. We’re going to stop. It’s dangerous to talk to them.

“Get lost! Get lost!”

These aggressive young settlers are appropriating Palestinian farmland.

And there is the Israeli army. The army is regularly accused of passivity and even complicity.

Just opposite, on a hill, a group of settlers is watching us. We approach them and try to start a conversation.

“Don’t you want to talk to me?”

“Don’t come near me.”

These radical religious Zionists want to expand the Jewish presence in Palestine. This afternoon, they remain silent.

A little further on, on a neighbouring hill, another group of settlers spots us. They rush towards us and go straight for the cameraman.

“Oh no, don’t touch the cameraman! Don’t touch me! Leave the cameraman alone!”

The situation escalates very quickly. Journalists are not welcome here.

The arrogance of these young settlers has a political explanation. They are supported by two supremacist ministers in the Israeli government who openly boast of wanting to annex Palestine.

Suddenly, they turn on our two Israeli companions. We are forced to leave.

So it is impossible to talk to the settlers. One of them is carrying an M16 assault rifle. He is the leader.

Night-time attacks on Palestinian villages

After nightfall, these settlers attack Palestinian villages in mobs, as these helpless residents tell us.

Hassan shows us footage of an attack that took place right here that very afternoon. We see masked settlers throwing stones. One of them points his handgun at a resident.

{Footage documenting a settler attack on the outskirts of the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah, on September 14, 2026}

“We’ve been attacked seven times in the past three months. They smash our windows and our cars, and they set things on fire.”

“When night comes, the women and children lock themselves inside their homes or stay on their balconies.”

“Are we afraid? Yes, and our children especially. We try to reassure them, but as soon as they hear the settlers, they panic and scream.”

Behind the house, Hassan shows us a hiding place where he keeps his only valuable possessions.

“They’re inside here. He hides them so that the settlers won’t come and steal them.”

“One, two, three, four, five, six goats and sheep. These six animals are all we own. They are our only source of income. We feed our families with them. We sell the milk and cheese. The settlers want to steal them from us. They have already stolen many animals in the village.”

The settlers have established themselves just above the village.

Hassan takes us along this path. It is the path the settlers take when they come to attack the village and seize and steal the sheep.

“They’re 400 metres from here. It’s dangerous, so we’ll stop.”

A little further down, villagers are keeping watch over the mountain.

“Look, there they are, the settlers, where the light is reflecting.”

“Are they trying to enter the village?”

“Sometimes they come on their quad bikes. They terrorise us all the time.”

These residents are trying to protect their village. But the settlers have left a message on the wall. It reads: “The revenge has not yet begun.”

The strategy of these extremists is to gradually seize Palestinian areas. Sometimes they carry out deadly raids.

Four months ago, they launched an assault on this school in Al-Mughayyir. The headmaster was there.

“The settlers were right there, behind that tree, on the hill.”

“Yes, he was standing up there. You can see him here in this video. He had his weapon. When he saw the schoolchildren coming out through that door, he shot one of them, right there in front of me. The bullet lodged here, in his head.”

“Their strategy is to frighten residents so that they no longer want to live here and leave.”

This village is now surrounded by seven unauthorised outposts like this one, protected by the Israeli army.

“The Israeli army is present. It’s right there.”

That evening, we are able to film it discreetly on the outskirts of the village.

According to the UN, settlers and soldiers have killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since 7 October 2023. During the same period, 48 Israelis died in attacks.

The more Israel expands its settlements, the more violence spirals out of control. Israeli activists trying to protect Palestinians But some Israeli peace activists have decided to take action.

This afternoon, they have come to protect a shepherd’s family that is regularly harassed on its isolated farm.

These Israeli activists intervene between settlers and their victims when attacks occur.

“They sometimes cut off the water, cut off the electricity, and try to make life impossible for the people living here.”

“What does what you are experiencing right now represent to you?”

“I don’t know whether it’s appropriate to say this, but to me, it represents history turned upside down. In other words, people are trying to drive others off their land because of their race, because of their origins. It reminds me of something, and it makes me feel terrible.”

This is a very marginal sentiment in Israel.

We continue on our way. A barrier opens. We enter another world.

This time, we are going to meet residents of a settlement that has been established in the West Bank for several years.

Life seems gentler here.

Johanna is French. She came to settle here with her family, she says, out of religious conviction.

“Is this where the Jewish people received the blessing?”

“Doesn’t it bother you?”

“What?”

“That it’s occupied? You are settling in a territory that is Palestinian under international law.”

“I can’t answer that.”

“Why?”

“Because it isn’t occupied.”

“We’re not in the occupied West Bank here?”

“No.”

Johanna sees her Palestinian neighbours as enemies. Her priority is security.

“Look, that’s an Arab village opposite us. Terrorists used to come out of that village to carry out attacks here. Thanks to the settlements, the new settlements that you can see here, they form a barrier.”

“Could there ever be a Palestinian state one day?”

“Where?"

Where would you put a Palestinian state? Some settlements have become sprawling cities with their own industrial economies, like this one in Barkan.

What you see in front of us is an entire industrial zone in the heart of the settlement.

There are 180 factories, and half of them export to Europe.

This Israeli company has exceptionally authorised us to film inside its premises.

Here, they prepare vacuum-packed salads for export to Europe.

“Is this for the French market?”

“Yes, it’s for the French market. This is everything we make.”

But a few days ago, 11 European countries decided to impose sanctions on all products originating from the settlements. This is a response to Israel’s expansionist policies.

“This boycott has a direct impact on us. It kills business. It kills exports to Europe.”

These new sanctions are provoking anger among the settlers, particularly wealthy date producers in the Jordan Valley, as the harvest is about to begin.

Western countries are increasing pressure on Israel to defend, once again, the two-state solution: an Israeli state living alongside a Palestinian state.

But perhaps it is already too late.