DaysofPal- Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, warned on Sunday that the West Bank is being subjected to “absolute Israeli permissiveness,” describing the situation as a full-scale assault on Palestinian life.
The organization stressed that Israeli occupation is capable of “far greater violence,” as demonstrated in the Gaza Strip.
B’Tselem said that since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed 1,004 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 217 minors. At least 21 of those victims were killed by Israeli settlers.
B’Tselem’s executive director, Yuli Novak, said the situation in the West Bank is deteriorating by the day, and will continue to worsen, because “there is no internal or external mechanism capable of preventing the Israeli occupation from continuing its ethnic cleansing.”
She urged the international community to revoke the impunity the Israeli occupation enjoys and to prosecute those responsible for crimes committed against the Palestinian people.
According to the statement, Israeli occupation has been implementing a highly permissive open-fire policy across the West Bank since October 2023, parallel to what B’Tselem described as acts of genocide in Gaza. This policy includes the use of airstrikes, a tactic once rarely employed in the West Bank.
The organization added that the Israeli military has also armed and mobilized thousands of settlers into regional defense units and rapid-response teams inside settlements.
These armed settlers, B’Tselem said, enjoy “complete immunity” and launch daily attacks on Palestinians, burning homes, farmland, and crops, looting property, and committing killings.
B’Tselem noted that dozens of settler attacks occur every day, many of them filmed and documented. Despite this widespread documentation, Israeli law enforcement agencies “rarely open investigations.”
The organization concluded its statement by highlighting that in the 21 killings carried out by settlers since October 2023, not a single perpetrator has been convicted.
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