JERUSALEM/GENEVA: Zionist settlers killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Monday, Palestinian officials said. The Palestinian health ministry named the victims of the attack near Nablus as Abdulrahman Maher Bani Fadel, 30, and Mohammed Ashraf Bani Jame, 21, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The mayor of Aqraba, Salah Bani Jaber, told AFP "dozens of settlers attacked” the nearby hamlet of Khirbet al-Tawil late on Monday. They "assaulted residents and fired at people in the town leading to the death of two citizens,” the mayor said, adding that "the occupation army is still holding the bodies.” The (Zionist) army told AFP "an initial inquiry suggests that the fatal shootings did not originate from the IDF.”
In a statement, it said "earlier today, the IDF received a report regarding a Palestinian suspect who attacked a Zionist shepherd in the area of Gitit. "A violent exchange developed between (Zionist) civilians and Palestinians in the area. IDF soldiers were dispatched to the scene and operated to disperse the violent exchange. "During the incident, two Palestinians were reportedly killed.”
On Friday, 14-year-old Zionist shepherd Benjamin Achimeir went missing from the Malachi Hashalom outpost near Ramallah in the West Bank. Hundreds of settlers backed by Zionist forces then launched raids on nearby villages that left at least two Palestinians dead and dozens wounded. The attacks intensified after Achimeir was found dead nearby on Saturday and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned what he called a "heinous murder”..
Two new outposts
The UN voiced grave concern Tuesday over the escalating violence in the West Bank, demanding that Zionist security forces (ISF) "immediately” stop supporting settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territory.
With the Gaza war raging, the United Nations rights office decried that Palestinians in the West Bank had been "subjected to waves of attacks by hundreds of (Zionist) settlers, often accompanied or supported by (Zionist) security forces”.
"The (Zionist) security forces must immediately end their active participation in and support for settler attacks on Palestinians,” rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva. "(Zionist) authorities must instead prevent further attacks, including by bringing those responsible to account.”
She stressed that "those reasonably suspected of criminal acts, including murder or other unlawful killings, must be brought to justice through a judicial process that complies with international human rights standards, following a prompt, impartial, independent, effective and transparent investigation”.
Shamdasani pointed out that following the killing of the 14-year-old Zionist settler, "four Palestinians, including a child, were killed and Palestinian property was destroyed in revenge attacks”. The UN rights office, she said, had received information that "armed settlers and (Zionist) forces” had entered a number of towns and villages. "Dozens of Palestinians were reportedly injured, including through the use of firearms, by settlers and ISF, and hundreds of homes and other buildings, as well as cars, were torched,” she said. "Three Zionist soldiers suffered injuries after they were hit with stones,” she added.
The UN also highlighted reports that settlers had established at least two new outposts in recent days in the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills. The outposts, she said, were "near Palestinian communities which have been repeatedly attacked by settlers in the past months and are at imminent risk of being forcibly transferred from their homes and land”.
"(The Zionist entity), as the occupying power, must take all measures in its power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety in the occupied West Bank,” she said. "This obligation includes protecting Palestinians from settler attacks, and ending unlawful use of force against Palestinians by the ISF.”
The West Bank, which the Zionist entity has occupied since 1967, has seen a surge in violence since early last year. At least 468 Palestinians have been killed by Zionist forces or settlers across the West Bank since October 7, according to official Palestinian sources. — AFP