Tel Aviv/Ramallah, Jan. 2, (dpa/GNA) – Israeli human rights activists say there were more recorded cases of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank in 2023 than in any other year before.
Nine Palestinians have been killed by settlers in the occupied West Bank since the Hamas massacre on October 7 alone, the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din announced on the social media platform X platform on Monday. Since recording began in 2006, there has never been more settler violence than in the past year, it said.
A total of 10 people were killed in settler violence in the West Bank in 2023. In the previous year, Israeli civilians killed at least five Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Israeli human rights group B’tselem.
Yesh Din says that last year was also a record year in terms of the intensity of the violence and the number of Israeli settlers involved.
In February, hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked the village of Huwara and set fire to houses and cars. Following a fatal attack on two Israeli brothers, there were serious riots by Israeli settlers there and in neighbouring villages in February. One Palestinian was killed and hundreds were injured.
Yesh Din reported more than 1,200 cases for the entire year. There is also a trend towards not reporting cases to the police. This, it says, is presumably due to a “policy of leniency and the cessation of cases of ideologically motivated crimes committed by Israelis against Palestinians in the West Bank.”
According to the organization, only 3% of all investigations initiated lead to indictments. It also levelled serious accusations at the leadership: “Settler violence is the policy of the Israeli government.”
According to Israeli media, the number of attacks by Palestinian assailants on Israeli civilians and security forces in the West Bank has also increased over the past year and a half.
Israel conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War in 1967. Hundreds of thousands of settlers now live there in the midst of around 3 million Palestinians. The Palestinians are demanding the territories for their own state.