File photo: Israeli settlers with assault rifles in the occupied West Bank on 1 July 2021. AFP
"We have repeatedly warned against the occupying Israeli state forming pockets of armed terror settler militias in the West Bank, and against the influence and dangers of these militias expanding their attacks on defenseless Palestinian civilians, their homes and properties," the ministry statement said.
The ministry called on the international community to include all settler organizations in terror lists.
Additionally, the Ministry said it was "surprised" at Israeli media reports that armed settler militias are being formed in the occupied West Bank, especially since these militias already exist and operate with the support and backing of the Israeli occupation army and ministers in the far-right Netanyahu government.
"Settler terrorism is a direct result of state terrorism, which is being diversified and generalized through all the arms of the occupying [Israeli] state," the statement added.
On Saturday, extremist Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers while they were working in their own lands in the town of Kafr Al-Dik, in the occupied West Bank province of Salfit.
Abdullah Al-Dik, a local Palestinian resident, told the Palestinian news agency, WAFA, that armed Israeli settlers brutally assaulted his father and uncle after raiding their agricultural lands on the outskirts of the town.
He said an Israeli army force later arrived at the scene, and instead of arresting the attacking settlers, they opened fire in the air and arrested his father, Ahmad Al-Dik, and assaulted his uncle, Mahmoud.
Israeli settler violence against Palestinians is commonplace across the occupied West Bank, and is supported and encouraged by the far-right Israeli government.
In June, approximately 200 Israeli settlers, some armed and under the protection of the Israeli army, carried out a brutal attack on the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya in the central West Bank, murdering one Palestinian and wounding dozens of others. They also burned 30 houses, 60 cars and dozens of olive trees.
On Thursday, illegal Israeli settlers set up a colonial settlement outpost on a Palestinian-owned lands in the village of Al-Mughayir, to the northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources, reported by WAFA.
This is the seventh outpost illegally established by Israeli settlers in the West Bank over the last 10 days.
All kinds of Israeli settlement activities in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are considered illegal by the international community.
UN estimates indicate that about 700,000 illegal settlers are living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied Palestinians territories.
Short link: