GENEVA: The United Nations voiced serious concern Tuesday over escalating violence in the West Bank, urging that Israeli security forces “immediately” end backing settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territory.
With the Gaza war raging, the UN rights office said that Palestinians in the West Bank had been subjected to waves of attacks by hundreds of Israeli settlers, often backed or accompanied by Israeli security forces (ISF).
Rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told journalists in Geneva that the Israeli security forces must immediately stop their active participation in and support for settler attacks on Palestinians, AFP reported.
She said that Israeli authorities must instead prevent further attacks, including by bringing those responsible to account.
She emphasized that those reasonably suspected of criminal acts, including killings or other crimes, must be brought to justice through a judicial process that complies with global human rights standards, following a prompt, independent, effective, impartial, and transparent investigation.
Shamdasani added that following the killing of a 14-year-old Israeli boy from a settler family at the weekend, 4 Palestinians, including a minor, were killed and Palestinian property was destroyed in revenge attacks.
The UN rights office, she further said, had received information that armed settlers and Israeli forces had entered a number of villages and towns.
She said that dozens of Palestinian people were reportedly wounded, including through the use of firearms, by Israeli forces and settlers, and hundreds of homes and other buildings, as well as vehicles, were torched.
Outposts Near Palestinian Communities
The UN also underlined reports that settlers had established at least 2 new outposts in recent days in the South Hebron Hills and Jordan Valley.
The outposts, she said, were close to Palestinian communities which have been repeatedly attacked by settlers in the previous months and are at imminent risk of being forcibly transferred from their homes and land.
