The United Nations has voiced grave concern over escalating violence in the occupied West Bank.
The UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in Geneva on Tuesday that the Israeli regime forces “must immediately end their active participation in and support for settler attacks on Palestinians.”
“Israeli authorities must instead prevent further attacks, including by bringing those responsible to account.”
“Those reasonably suspected of criminal acts, including murder or other unlawful killings, must be brought to justice through a judicial process that complies with international human rights standards, following a prompt, impartial, independent, effective and transparent investigation.”
The statement from the UN’s human rights office was issued after a number of Palestinians were killed by Israeli settlers in a village south of Nablus.
Shamdasani said following the killing of a 14-year-old Israeli boy from a settler family at the weekend, “four Palestinians, including a child, were killed and Palestinian property was destroyed in revenge attacks.”
The UN rights office, she said, had received information that armed settlers and Israeli forces had entered a number of towns and villages.
“Dozens of Palestinians were reportedly injured, including through the use of firearms, by settlers and Israeli forces, and hundreds of homes and other buildings, as well as cars, were torched,” she said.
At least eight Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or armed settlers since April 12.
Palestinian authorities have reported an increasing number of attacks by settlers across the West Bank.
Salah Bani Jaber, the mayor of Aqraba, a town near the northern city of Nablus, said, “There were Israeli soldiers at the scene who stood idly by watching the settlers.”
The UN also highlighted reports that settlers had established at least two new outposts in recent days in the Jordan Valley and South al-Khalil Hills.
The outposts, she said, were “near Palestinian communities which have been repeatedly attacked by settlers in the past months and are at imminent risk of being forcibly transferred from their homes and land.”
“Israel, as the occupying power, must take all measures in its power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety in the occupied West Bank.”
“This obligation includes protecting Palestinians from settler attacks, and ending unlawful use of force against Palestinians by Israeli forces.”
The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has seen a surge in violence particularly since the regime launched its savage campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip in early October.
Nearly 470 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers across the West Bank since October 7.
