GENEVA: The United Nations on Friday said a deadly Israeli settler attack on a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank was “horrific” and that Israel had to end impunity.
The UN human rights office said deadly violence in the Palestinian territory, that has increased since the start of the Gaza war, “needs to stop”.
The Israeli military said “dozens of Israeli civilians, some of them masked”, entered Jit, west of Nablus, on Thursday night, and “set fire to vehicles and structures in the area, hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails”. A Palestinian man was shot dead.
“It was horrific,” said UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani.
“What is striking and important to remember is that yesterday’s killing in Jit is not an isolated attack, and it is the direct consequence of Israel’s policy of settlement in the West Bank,” she added.
Speaking of attacks across the West Bank since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, she said: “There are reports of Israeli security forces standing by as attacks take place.
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“There are even reports of weapons being distributed to the settlers. So there is clearly a state responsibility in this regard.”
Shamdasani said the UN rights office had reported in recent years about settlers attacking Palestinian communities in the West Bank “with impunity”.
“This really is the crux of the matter: the impunity that the perpetrators of such grave violations have been enjoying,” she said.
Violence in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, has surged since the Hamas October 7 attacks on Israel set off the Gaza war.
More than 630 Palestinians have been killed by settlers or Israeli troops, according to the Palestinian authorities.
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