Israeli forces and settlers have intensified their attacks against Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank in recent days, killing and injuring several people, demolishing homes and setting fire to mosques.
The escalating violence began on Thursday, when settlers and soldiers killed four Palestinians and injured eight across the West Bank.
On Friday, a group of armed settlers attacked Palestinians on their land in the village of Tal, killing at least four people. During the incident, a Palestinian man seized an attacker’s weapon and shot and killed two Israelis.
Walid Zidan, the mayor of Tal, said some 20 settlers attacked the village at around 8am. “Residents rushed to defend homeowners in the area,” he said, according to Drop Site News.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz responded to the deaths of the two Israelis by ordering weapons raids, the demolition of homes and the revocation of work permits for Palestinians in certain villages.
“The security forces must be allowed to operate freely and with full force,” the two leaders said.
National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on X that West Bank towns and villages where Palestinians attack Israelis should be demolished in the same way Beit Hanoun in Gaza was. The town of around 52,000 people has been depopulated and destroyed by the Israeli military during its genocide in Gaza.
“I will demand that the Israeli army be ordered to wipe out… the homes of terrorists and their supporters,” the minister said. “For every Jew who is murdered – the enemy must absorb the loss of lands and homes.”
Journalist Andrey Ilyich Khrzhanovskiy wrote on X that “Israel is preparing a massive terror campaign in the West Bank.
Over the weekend, settlers set fire to cars, farmland and two mosques: one that was under construction in Qusra, near Nablus, and another in the village of Kour. Settlers also attacked Palestinians working at a stone-cutting facility near Ramallah.
Israeli forces have abducted more than 120 Palestinians across the West Bank in recent days, the Palestinian Center for the Defense of Detainees said.
“The arrest campaign comes within the framework of the policy of collective punishment and retaliation that the occupation is escalating against the sons and daughters of the Palestinian people in the West Bank,” the centre was quoted by the Quds News Network as saying.
Palestinians detained by Israeli forces are at high risk of being tortured, sexually assaulted and denied the right to a fair trial.
More than 1,114 Palestinians, including 241 children, have been killed in the West Bank since October 2023. The Israeli military is responsible for most of the killings, while at least 35 deaths involved attacks by settlers, according to the UN.
Israeli violence in the West Bank is causing “catastrophic levels of harm” to children, the UN’s human rights agency said in June.
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