Palestine Presidency urges action against settler crimes to halt Israel’s aggression

The Palestinian Presidency called on Friday for the condemnation of the attacks and crimes of Israeli settlers in the West Bank to force Israel to stop its aggression.

This came in a statement by the Presidency’s spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, reported by the official Wafa News Agency the day after an attack on the village of Jit in the northern West Bank that resulted in the death of a Palestinian man.

Abu Rudeineh stated: “The positions condemning the settler attack on the village of Jit by the UN, the American administration and the EU are good, but they must be transformed into actions by working immediately to force Israel to stop its comprehensive aggression against our people, their land, and their holy sites. We must put an end to all crimes committed by the occupation forces and settlers and impose more sanctions on them to curb their escalating terrorism.”

Abu Rudeineh noted: “These attacks and crimes by the terrorist settler militias are the result of the ongoing war of genocide waged by the Israeli occupation state against our people, their holy sites and their property.”

On Thursday, Israeli settlers killed a Palestinian, seriously injured another and set fire to four homes and six cars owned by Palestinians during their raid on the village of Jit in the West Bank. The attack was met with widespread international condemnation and US, European and international calls to hold the perpetrators of the attack accountable.

READ: 273 fires target Palestinian land, properties since 7 October

Abu Rudeineh warned of: “The danger of the escalation of crimes committed by terrorist settlers with the support and protection of the Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian citizens in the West Bank, as was the case yesterday (Thursday) in the village of Jit.”

He urged: “The war of genocide committed by the occupation in the Gaza Strip, the continued crimes of killing and arrest in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the escalating attacks by settlers and the attacks on Islamic and Christian holy sites, require urgent intervention from the US administration to force the occupation authorities to stop their crimes. Israel violated all the prohibitions of international law due to Washington’s blind support (for it) politically, militarily and financially.”

The spokesperson for the Palestinian presidency believes: “The timid American position is not enough. There is a need for the international community to intervene to implement international decisions and rulings of the international courts, the latest of which is the decision of the International Court of Justice, which confirmed that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal and that Israel must end its occupation, dismantle its settlements and remove its settlers from the occupied Palestinian territories.”

In a statement on Friday, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, Moayyad Shaban, confirmed that residents of 26 Bedouin communities had been displaced due to settler attacks since 7 October.

According to Israeli estimates, more than 720,000 settlers live in settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

READ: PFLP: Escalation of settler crimes calls for formation of popular protection committees