Israeli soldiers arrive in the village of Qusra, south of the city of Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which has faced escalating Israeli settler violence over the past month. AFP
Hundreds of Israeli settlers on Sunday stormed Islamic religious sites in the village of Awarta, southeast of Nablus, under the protection of Israeli forces, according to local and security sources cited by the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Israeli occupation forces closed two checkpoints in the Nablus area as the settlers entered the village, the sources said.
The latest incident followed a series of settler attacks on Saturday that injured 19 people, including 17 Palestinians and two foreign journalists, amid Israeli military raids and restrictions across several parts of the West Bank.
The settlers' attacks and Israeli military measures affected the towns and villages of Qusra, Jalud, Arraba, Raba, Al-Mughayyir, and Burqa, as well as Hebron’s Old City. They included the bulldozing of Palestinian land, road closures, and restrictions on the movement of Palestinians and journalists.
Meanwhile, an EU delegation led by the European Union representative for the Middle East peace process visited Qusra, south of Nablus, on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera.
Settlers and Israeli forces have maintained a blockade on three Palestinian homes in the Ras Al-Ain area for more than three weeks, leaving residents facing water shortages and preventing them from entering or leaving their homes after Israeli forces declared the area a closed military zone.
The European delegation toured Qusra, met with the head of the local council, and contacted a family that has been under siege since Saturday’s settler attack, the report said. The visit aimed to assess the humanitarian needs of families under siege and the impact of Israeli settlement activity.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said three Palestinian families in Qusra remained isolated.
OCHA has documented more than 1,540 settler attacks since the beginning of the year, resulting in injuries to around 1,040 Palestinians. It also recorded 80 settler attacks during the second and third weeks of August that caused injuries among Palestinians.
The Israeli forces’ support for settler attacks and their protection of settlers during the assaults stand in stark contrast to Netanyahu’s condemnation of what he described as the “criminal acts” of a “handful of rioters” in the occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu has sought to portray the attacks as the actions of isolated individuals, despite dozens of settlers carrying out assaults in the two villages under the protection of the Israeli military, according to local officials and sources.
Maariv, citing a military source, reported that Israeli police had not arrested any of the settlers who took part in Saturday’s attacks in Qusra.
Israeli military sources have expressed concern that Netanyahu may be paving the way for a deliberate deterioration of the situation in the West Bank, potentially shifting the focus of the election campaign, due to be held in two months, away from scrutiny of the failures surrounding the 7 October 2023 attacks, Haaretz reported.
Maariv also reported that the Israeli military is considering transferring some of its forces currently deployed in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip to the West Bank in the coming days, warning that the territory is “on the verge of an explosion.”
Israel’s general election is scheduled for 27 October and is widely seen as crucial to Netanyahu’s political future. He faces corruption charges and criticism over his government’s handling of foreign policy, including the war with Iran.
In an unusually sharp statement, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee referred to violent settlers as “terrorists.”
Netanyahu’s government, Israel’s most far-right government, has overseen a surge in settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the territory illegal under international law.
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