A recent increase in settler violence has seen 14 wounded Palestinians – including at least two children – in the occupied West Bank, according to an Israeli human rights group.
Yesh Din, who documents attacks on Palestinians and seeks to end Israeli occupation, said a large number of crossings in the West Bank were blocked by settlers on Thursday night and stones were thrown at Palestinian vehicles.
Jad Alaa Sawfta, a 5-year-old boy from the city of Tubas, in the West Bank, was injured at about 10 pm local time (3 pm ET) on Thursday at the Givat Asaf junction near the city of Ramallah, the Palestinian administrative base. in the West Bank, he added. The group shared a photo of the boy who appeared to have scratches on his cheek and lower lip.
On January 17, an 11-year-old Palestinian girl also suffered injuries to her face as a result of stones thrown by Israeli settlers, according to Yesh Din.
These latest incidents took place amid what human rights groups say is an increase in settler violence following the death of a young settler, suspected of throwing stones at Palestinians, in a car chase with police in the West Bank on December 21.
Settlers are irritated by what they consider Israeli police bad treatment of them and the death of the colonizer, Ahuvia Sandak, said Lior Amihai, executive director of Yesh Din, adding that in reality, settlers often benefit from the lack of policemen.
Amihai said the group had documented some 50 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians since Sandak’s death, during which 14 Palestinians were injured. He said the group cannot compare this figure with previous data because it did not record all cases of settler violence.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh on Thursday condemned the attacks in the West Bank and called on President Joe Biden’s government to do the same.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli police said he was placed at friction points in the West Bank to prevent violence and enforce the law. Last month, several cases were opened related to crimes of disorderly conduct and violence against Palestinians and security forces, she said.
A police investigation into the incident in which the child was injured is underway, she added.
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In a statement to NBC News, an Israeli Defense Forces spokesman said his troops “do not stand still when they witness violence”, adding that they “operate constantly to maintain stability” in the region.
The IDF has postponed questions about Thursday’s incident to the police.
A spokesman for the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization representing Jewish settlements in the West Bank, declined to comment.
Another prominent Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, also said that there has been a recent increase in settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, but that it was still working to collate the number of incidents.
Both groups said the violence is the continuation of a decades-long campaign against the Palestinians in the disputed territory that Israel took from Jordan in 1967 in the Arab-Israeli war and the Palestinians want as part of a future state. They say Israeli officials have allowed settlers to attack their Palestinian neighbors.
“Nobody tries to prevent these attacks in advance, even while they happen,” said Yael Stein, director of research at B’Tselem. “This reality is not a coincidence, but it is part of Israel’s deliberate policy of privatizing the violence that serves its objectives: to take Palestinian land and resources by expelling the Palestinians.”
Palestinians are also regularly accused of violence against settlers, including throwing stones, hitting cars and stabbing. But Stein said that when that happens, the military takes action, arresting and prosecuting suspects.
“It is not symmetrical,” she said.
The increase in violence came amid an increase in Israeli plans for more homes for settlements in the West Bank.
On Wednesday, Israel launched bids for more than 2,500 homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in addition to hundreds more announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, the Israeli human rights group Peace Now said.
More than 440,000 settlers now live in the West Bank in settlements considered illegal by the majority of the international community, alongside more than 2.7 million Palestinians, according to PEACE NOW.
However, in 2019, under the Trump administration, the United States reversed its decades-old position that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal.
As a candidate for president, Joe Biden told The New York Times that “Israeli leaders should stop the expansion of settlements in the West Bank.”
Lawahez Jabari contributed.