Sao Paulo
As attention turns to the thousands of people killed by the Gaza offensive, Israeli soldiers and settlers have escalated violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
According to Okha, the United Nations’ humanitarian arm in the region, attacks across the occupied territory have killed 200 people and caused more than 1,000 displacements since October 7.
In the weeks following the Hamas terror attacks that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, Israeli soldiers killed 191 people in the West Bank, including 51 children. Most of the deaths occurred during raids in Jenin and Tulkarem. Clashes with demonstrators also resulted in fatalities and more than 2,000 people were arrested.
In addition, occupation forces have protected Israeli settlers during raids on Palestinian villages and towns. During the reporting period, 251 settler attacks were recorded, resulting in eight deaths, including a child, and damage to infrastructure and crops. During this period, four Israelis were killed by Palestinians in the West Bank.
Colonist attacks have become more frequent an average of 6 per day since October, compared to 3 per day in the first half of this year and 2 per day last year. They are also more violent, with threats and the use of firearms.
For example, on October 26, settlers terrorized Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest in the village of Deir Istiya. Military personnel present at the scene did not intervene to contain them.
In another incident in the same village, settlers distributed leaflets threatening a second Nakba (catastrophe in Arabic), a reference to the displacement of 750,000 Palestinians and the destruction of more than 500 villages in the area where Israel settled in 1948.
The current intimidation campaign is already leading to new mass displacements. More than 143 families with a total of 1,014 people, including 388 children, left their land in around 15 Bedouin villages, agricultural communities with a traditional way of life.
This is the case in the village of Khirbet Zanuta, which has been subjected to repeated attacks by settlers in recent weeks until the approximately 250 residents decided to leave the place.
“The settlers destroyed our houses, water tanks, photovoltaic systems and cars,” said 43yearold resident Abu Khaled in a statement to Ocha. “I felt death very closely, I saw it with my own eyes. On October 28th I made the hardest decision of my life: to leave Zanuta and leave everything behind. I did it to protect my children.”
Even before the current wave of violence, there were warnings about the aggressiveness of the settlers. On February 26, hundreds of settlers invaded the village of Huwara, leaving a trail of destruction and ashes.
A 19yearold Palestinian was shot dead and others injured in the action, described by the Israeli military as a “pogrom,” in the early 1900s.
However, none of the settlers involved in this attack on Huwara have been convicted so far. Since October, the village has been attacked again at least three times.
Impunity is the rule for this type of aggression. According to a survey by the Israeli NGO Yesh Din, 93% of cases of settler attacks between 2005 and 2022 ended without charges.
While Israel uses the fight against Hamas as justification for its offensive in Gaza, the same cannot be said about the West Bank. Unlike Gaza, which has been ruled by the terrorist group since 2007, there is no significant presence of the group in the West Bank. The area is partly administered by the Palestinian Authority (ANP), which is allied with the secular Fatah party, a rival to Hamas.
The West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967 and is home to around three million Palestinians. Of these, 300,000 live in the socalled Area C, an administrative unit created by the Oslo Accords that represents 60% of the territory and over which Israel exercises complete control. The rest of the territory, divided into Areas A and B, has limited ANP actions.
Area C is also home to around 450,000 Israeli settlers and is where most attacks are concentrated. While Israeli martial law applies to Palestinians in the occupied territories, settlers are subject to civil law.
The presence of these settlers violates international law and hinders peace negotiations aimed at creating a Palestinian state. Most live in settlements recognized by Israeli authorities, while others live in “outposts” that are considered illegal even under the country’s legal system.
The settlers justify their presence in the West Bank by arguing that the region has holy sites for Judaism, according to the Bible, and claim that the Palestinians are leaving their land of their own free will.
In a statement to Portal, Shira Liebman, president of the Yesha Council, the largest settler organization in the West Bank, denied that settlers were attacking Palestinians or that they were involved in deaths recorded in the region.
The settlers form the support base of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which is made up of fundamentalist and ultranationalist members.
After the Hamas attacks, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who himself lives in a settlement near Hebron, announced the distribution of 10,000 weapons to civilians it is unclear how many of these weapons ended up in the hands of the settlers.
Colonizing the West Bank is strategically important to the project of annexing the territory, a stated goal of Bibi, the nickname by which the Israeli prime minister is known.
“Israeli colonial settlements represent a key method by which Israel has established and maintains an institutionalized regime of oppression and racial domination that amounts to the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people,” 26 Palestinian NGOs say in a letter to world leaders .
Even Israel’s allies have stepped up their criticism. US President Joe Biden called for “extremist settlers” to be held accountable, while France’s Foreign Ministry described the attacks as a “politics of terror”.
When contacted, the Israeli Embassy in Brazil did not comment until the publication of this text.