More than 100 Palestinians have been killed, more than 2,000 injured and nearly 1,000 forcibly displaced by Israeli settlers since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, the United Nations said.
Maria Abi-Habib reported from London, and Rami Nazzal from Ramallah
Among the dead are 33 children, according to an update on Sunday from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which has been tracking the conflicts.
Confrontations in the West Bank have been a longstanding issue, but the violence has intensified over the last three weeks, more than doubling to seven incidents a day, on average, compared with three incidents a day since the start of 2023, according to the U.N.
“We’ve observed more incidents where armed settlers have threatened Palestinians,” Andrea De Domenico, the head of the U.N. humanitarian affairs office, told The New York Times. “In several areas, Palestinians have been ordered to leave under the threat of firearms.”
An ever-growing number of Israeli communities have taken root in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967. The settlements cut into land Palestinians have title to and also undermine the territory needed for any two-state solution, fanning tensions in the region. They also draw many residents who consider the West Bank to be Jewish by birthright.
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In the clashes since Oct. 7, almost half have involved “Israeli forces accompanying or actively supporting Israeli settlers while carrying out the attacks,” according to the U.N. report.
The Israeli military declined to comment.
In the days after the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, announced that his ministry was purchasing 10,000 rifles in order to arm civilians, specifying among the intended recipients those in West Bank settlements.
Much of the violence in the territory has been directed at herders and Bedouin communities. The U.N. said those Palestinians have faced physical violence and intimidation and also been denied access to their lands, a particular hardship given that many are farmers.
The Palestinian hamlet of Khirbet al-Ratheem, in the hills of Hebron, is now completely emptied of its population of about 50 people. Israeli settlers from a nearby outpost began to close roads leading to the hamlet on Oct. 14, according to Palestinians who lived there.
On the night of Oct. 14, “they returned to attack us, pointing their guns at us while forcing us all into one room,” said Amir Abdullah Hamdan al-Maharak, a 50-year-old farmer who has seven children.
Mr. al-Maharak said that the settlers dragged and shoved his elderly father around the family’s home, and then used their knives to cut through the family’s water barrels and slash the pipes for their propane canisters.
Fearing for their lives, he and his family decided to take their sheep and flee.
Maria Abi-Habib is an investigative correspondent based in Mexico City, covering Latin America. She previously reported from Afghanistan, across the Middle East and in India, where she covered South Asia. More about Maria Abi-Habib
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