Israeli settlers injure dozens of Palestinians in wave of West Bank attacks

Latest attacks come amid a widely condemned Israeli push to cement control over the occupied Palestinian territory.

Dozens of Palestinians have been injured as Israeli settlers carried out a wave of attacks across the occupied West Bank, destroying olive trees and vandalising property.

At least 54 Palestinians were wounded on Friday morning as settlers attacked several towns and villages under the protection of the Israeli military.

Settlers assaulted Palestinian farmers on their lands near Talfit, a village south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, and Israeli troops fired tear gas and live ammunition at residents who tried to repel the settler attack.

Images from the village showed homes with broken windows and vehicles with smashed windshields as a result of the attack.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli settlers also destroyed about 300 Palestinian olive trees near the Ramallah-area town of Turmus Aya, the Wafa news agency reported, citing local sources.

Palestinians across the West Bank have faced an intensified surge in Israeli military and settler violence in the shadow of Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.

At least 1,054 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops and settlers between October 7, 2023, and February 5 of this year, according to the latest United Nations figures.

Israel has also forcibly displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes across the West Bank, refusing to allow them to return in what Human Rights Watch says amounts to war crimes and a crime against humanity.

The Israeli government drew international condemnation this week after it approved plans to extend its authority over more of the West Bank – a move that observers denounced as de facto annexation, in violation of international law.

“If these decisions are implemented, they will undoubtedly accelerate the dispossession of Palestinians and their forcible transfer, and lead to the creation of more illegal Israeli settlements,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Wednesday.

“We are witnessing rapid steps to change permanently the demography of the occupied Palestinian territory, stripping its people of their lands and forcing them to leave,” Turk said in a statement.

“This is supported by rhetoric and actions by senior Israeli officials, and violates Israel’s obligation as an occupying power to preserve the existing legal order and social fabric. These decisions must be overturned.”