TEL AVIV/RAMALLAH (dpa-AFX) – According to Israeli human rights activists, there were more recorded cases of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank in 2023 than in previous years. Nine Palestinians have been killed by settlers in the occupied West Bank since the Hamas massacre on October 7th alone, the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din said on Monday on the X platform, formerly Twitter. Since logging began in 2006, there has never been more settler violence than last year, it said.
A total of ten people died in settler violence in the West Bank in 2023. The year before, Israeli civilians killed at least five Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Israeli human rights group B’tselem.
According to human rights activists, last year was a record year in terms of the intensity of the violence and the number of Israeli settlers involved. In February, for example, hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked the town of Huwara and set houses and cars on fire. After a fatal attack on two Israeli brothers, there were serious riots by Israeli settlers there and in neighboring towns in February. One Palestinian was killed and hundreds injured.
For the entire year, human rights activists reported more than 1,200 cases. There is also a trend not to report cases to the police. This is probably due to a “policy of leniency and the dismissal of cases of ideologically motivated crimes by Israelis against Palestinians in the West Bank.” According to the organization, only three percent of all investigations initiated lead to charges. She also made serious accusations against the leadership: “Settler violence is the policy of the Israeli government.”
According to Israeli media, the number of attacks by Palestinian assassins on Israeli civilians and security forces in the West Bank has increased over the past year and a half.
Israel conquered, among other things, the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War in 1967. Hundreds of thousands of settlers now live there among around three million Palestinians. The Palestinians are demanding the areas for their own state./cir/DP/he