Israeli forces beat up an elderly Palestinian man who was defending his land from takeover by settlers
Ramallah, January 31 (RHC)-- The Palestinian Authority has called on the United Nations and the UN Security Council to protect Palestinians in the occupied West Bank against increasing attacks by Israeli troops and settlers.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Council “must assume their responsibilities designated by international law and provide international protection to our people and their just and legitimate national rights,” said the Palestinian Foreign Ministry in a statement, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported over the weekend.
The statement, which released following a sharp rise in the attacks by the Israeli military and settlers, also denounced the assaults against Palestinians and their rights. It added that Israeli settlers had intensified their attacks and terror acts against the Palestinian civilians, their lands, and their properties in the occupied West Bank, including the East Jerusalem al-Quds.
“The escalation in settler attacks is now dominating the scene on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territory, and is manifested in various forms of killing, damaging property, seizing land, going after farmers, uprooting trees, and killing of livestock, among other forms of criminal escalation with the support of the occupying army,” the statement went on to say.
The Palestinian foreign ministry demands that world states place Israeli settlers on international lists of terrorism. According to the ministry, the last of these attacks occurred against Khan al-Lubban al-Sharqiya archaeological site, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
The attack, the statement added, was aimed at taking over the site as part of Israel’s settlement expansion plans, while settlers also target many Palestinian historical and archeological sites in an attempt to seize them. The foreign ministry further told the UN and the UNSC not to treat such attacks as normal and common incidents, warning that their dangerous consequences on Palestinian rights must be taken into consideration.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds. According to human rights groups, incidents of sabotage and violence by extremist settlers against Palestinians and their property are a daily occurrence throughout the West Bank.
