Israeli settlers’ violence against Palestinians in West Bank rises

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- The number of violent incidents perpetrated by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has risen dramatically in the past two years, as Israeli officials point to a “a permissive atmosphere” for extremists in the area, according to Israeli newspaper, Haaretz .

In the first half of 2021, 416 anti-Palestinian incidents were reported – more than double the figure for the first half of 2020 and more than all of 2019.

In 2019, there were 363 incidents and 507 reported in 2020.

According to one Israeli official, this change has been particularly noticeable in the Central Command of the Israel War Forces, whose territory includes the occupied West Bank. In an effort to avoid confrontations with the settlers, the style includes permitting the settlers to “let off steam.”

Of the 416 incidents reported between January and June of 2021, there were approximately 139 incidents of vandalism, stone-throwing, assaults and so-called price-tag incidents.

Price Tag is an anti-Palestinian Israeli group that routinely attacks Palestinians in the occupied territories and the Green Line.

The Israeli occupation government still refuses to label it as a terrorist organization and considers it only as a group of vandals.

The 139 figure was roughly 30 higher than the first half of 2020 and 65 higher than the first half of 2019.

The number of incidents involving physical attacks by settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in the first half of 2021 more than doubled, from 52 between January and June 2020 to 130 in the first half of 2021.

In the first half of this year, the incidents resulted in 23 people injured, compared to 8 in 2020 and 7 in 2019.

This trend was not curbed by pandemic restrictions imposed in the Israeli-occupied territories and West Bank settlements, the newspaper reported.

Most of the anti-Palestinian incidents commited by settlers in the past two years took place in and around the West Bank cities of Hebron, Ramallah and Nablus.

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