UN warns of increased attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank

Athe United Nations documented a total of 397 attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank between October 1 and 26, a monthly maximum since the beginning of the records 20 years ago.

“ The violence of the settlers remained high during the period measured,” said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in a statement quoted by the Spanish agency Europa Press.

The agency stresses that “this is the largest monthly number of attacks since they began to be documented in 2006”.

The province of Ramallah was the most affected, with 40 percent of the attacks of settlers causing injury or material damage.

As examples, the UN reports that on October 20, Israeli settlers, “accompanied by Israeli forces,” attacked Palestinian Bedouin families east of Rammun, arrested several people and stole a hundred sheep that they took to a nearby settlement.

On the same day in Yabrud, settlers tried to steal a vehicle from a Palestinian family and assaulted three family members who tried to stop the robbery. One of them suffered a skull fracture and an eye injury.

In Hebron, two Palestinians shot two Israeli soldiers on 23 October. In retaliation, some 3,000 Palestinians were forced to leave their homes, according to data from the Hebron Municipal Council that OCHA is already trying to verify.

The settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal in the light of international law.

The violence of the settlers in the occupied West Bank fired after the attacks of the Islamist Hamas group on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, which started a war in Gaza.

According to an AFP account based on data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the army and settlers have killed more than 1,100 Palestinians between fighters and civilians ever since.

According to Israeli data, in the same period almost 50 Israelis – civilians and members of security forces – were killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations.

In the Gaza Strip, the OCHA denounces the recurrent Israeli military attacks and the “intentional burning” of houses in the vicinity of the Yellow Line, the front line agreed at the last ceasefire a year ago, leaving 60% of the Palestinian enclave under Israeli control.

It also reports on “multiple attacks that have affected humanitarian operations” in the Band.