The recent events in the occupied West Bank have been met with widespread condemnation from local and international politicians, NGOs and human rights groups. On Sunday night, Israeli settlers carried out a rampage through Palestinian villages in the Nablus area, resulting in at least 300 attacks, including shootings and arson. Samih al-Aqtash, a 37-year-old Palestinian man, was shot in the stomach and died of his injuries. The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that at least 390 Palestinians were injured, mostly from tear gas fired by the Israeli army and smoke inhalation from fires set by the settlers.
Saddam Omar, a resident of Huwara, described the violence as “barbaric”, saying that the settlers “were 100 percent protected by the Israeli army”. At least 30 Palestinian homes and 100 cars were set on fire by the settlers, according to Ghassan Daghlas, the Palestinian Authority’s head of settlement monitoring for the northern West Bank. He added that the attack was “unprecedented in terms of size and the short amount of time in which it took place”.
The violence came shortly after two Israeli settlers were killed in a shooting by a Palestinian man in Huwara. The Israeli army responded by deploying hundreds more soldiers to the occupied West Bank and closing Huwara, the main southern entrance into Nablus. On Monday afternoon, an Israeli was shot and wounded by a Palestinian gunman in the occupied West Bank.
The settler attacks have been widely condemned by local and international politicians, NGOs and human rights groups. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said that a ministerial committee will be formed to compensate the people affected. Israeli rights groups Peace Now and B’Tselem described the attacks as a settler ‘pogrom’. Foreign governments, including the United States and France, also issued condemnations on the attacks.
Israeli settler attacks have been consistently rising for the past six years, with many incidents recorded on video showing them taking place under the protection or in coordination with the Israeli army. The United Nations said that 2022 is the sixth year of consecutive annual increase in the number of Israeli settler attacks in the occupied West Bank. In recent weeks, matters on the ground have become particularly tense after Israel carried out several large-scale raids in Palestinian cities, killing dozens of Palestinians.
It is clear that the Israeli government is complicit in these attacks and must be held accountable for its actions. The international community must take action to end this impunity and ensure that Palestinians are protected from these violent acts of aggression.