Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians by the numbers

Between 2010 and 2019, almost 3,000 Israeli settler assaults killed not less than 22 Palestinians and injured 1,258 others throughout the occupied West Financial institution.

An aerial view of a yard the place automobiles had been torched in a single day, within the Palestinian city of Hawara close to Nablus within the occupied West Financial institution. [Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP]

On February 26, not less than 400 Israeli settlers attacked a number of Palestinian villages in Nablus, together with Hawara, killing one man and injuring tons of of others. Settlers burned down greater than 30 properties and not less than 100 automobiles whereas beating Palestinians with metallic rods and rocks. In keeping with Israeli media, six settlers had been arrested.

On March 1, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister who additionally handles civil administration within the occupied West Financial institution, mentioned Hawara needs to be “worn out”.

Smoke and flames rise after Israeli settlers went on a rampage within the occupied West Financial institution city of Hawara, setting fireplace to a number of properties and automobiles and injuring dozens of Palestinians, on February 27, 2023 [Hisham KK Abu Shaqra/Anadolu Agency]

What are Israeli settlements?

Israeli settlements are Jewish communities constructed on Palestinian land. Between 600,000 and 750,000 Israeli settlers reside in not less than 250 settlements and outposts constructed by the Israeli authorities and settlers, throughout the occupied Palestinian West Financial institution and East Jerusalem.

That's equal to roughly 11 p.c of the overall Jewish Israeli inhabitants. They reside past the “internationally recognised” borders of their state, on Palestinian land that Israel militarily occupied in 1967 and continues to take action till at the moment. Settlers additionally lived within the besieged Gaza Strip till 2005, after they had been evacuated.

(Al Jazeera)

Israeli settlements are unlawful below worldwide regulation as they violate the Fourth Geneva Conference, which bans an occupying energy from transferring its inhabitants to the realm it occupies. That is for quite a lot of causes, together with defending civilians from the theft of assets by the occupying energy and to forestall adjustments within the demographic make-up of the occupied territory.

The vast majority of settlements have been constructed both solely or partially on personal Palestinian land. Regardless of being exterior of Israel correct, these settlers are granted Israeli citizenship and obtain authorities subsidies that considerably decrease their value of dwelling. In distinction, Palestinians dwelling within the West Financial institution are topic to Israeli army regulation.

An aerial view reveals the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution on June 29, 2020 [File: Ilan Rosenberg/Reuters]

The vast majority of settlers are armed and Palestinians dwelling within the occupied West Financial institution and East Jerusalem undergo from tons of of Israeli settler assaults every year. Such assaults, which embody shootings, stabbings, arson, beatings and rock-throwing, have develop into extra organised over the previous few years. Yearly, hundreds of Palestinian bushes and automobiles are burned by these settlers.

Many of those incidents have been recorded on video exhibiting that the assaults usually happen below the safety or in coordination with the Israeli military, typically with troopers and settlers taking pictures facet by facet.

Growing variety of settler assaults

Between 2010 and 2019, the United Nations Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recorded not less than 2,955 settler assaults, through which not less than 22 Palestinians had been killed, and not less than 1,258 others had been injured. The governorates of Nablus, Hebron and Ramallah had the very best variety of incidents.

Because the begin of 2023, Israeli settler-related violence reached a mean of three incidents per day in contrast with two incidents per day in 2022, and one incident per day in 2021, the UN advised Al Jazeera. That is the very best each day common of settler-related incidents affecting Palestinians since 2006, it added.

(Al Jazeera)

In keeping with Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din, which has been monitoring settler violence since 2005, simply seven p.c of settler assaults have led to prison fees with solely three p.c of investigations resulting in a conviction.

Palestinians killed by settlers in 2023

Through the first two months of 2023, not less than 5 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers within the occupied West Financial institution. As compared, three Palestinians had been killed in 2022, 5 in 2021, none in 2022 and two in 2019.

(Al Jazeera)

Listed below are the names and areas of the Palestinians killed by Israeli settlers for the reason that begin of 2023:

1. January 11 – Sanad Samamreh, 18, Hebron
2. January 21 – Tariq Maali, 42, Ramallah
3. January 29 – Karam Salman, 18, Qalqilya
4. February 11 – Mithqal Rayan, 27, Salfit
5. February 26 – Samih al-Aqtash, 37, Nablus