The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has recorded a steady increase in Israeli violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, in comparison to previous years.
OCHA documented, in a report, that Israeli violence has increased since the begging of 2018, the weekly average of settler attacks that resulted in injuries among Palestinians or damage to Palestinian property is five, compared with an average of three attacks in 2017 and two attacks in 2016.
The report noted that, during the last two weeks, three Palestinians were injured in settler attacks, and recorded 11 attacks against Palestinian properties in West Bank.
The report recorded that, on 10 April, a Palestinian man sustained injuries as Israeli settlers beat him, in Nablus. Israeli settlers also uprooted about 140 olive trees owned by Palestinians in the villages of Rajib, Burin and Auref, in Nablus, in three separate incidents.
In five other separate incidents, Israeli settlers damaged the tires of 113 Palestinian vehicles, spray-painted “Pay the Price” slogans on the walls of ten houses, and set fire to a mosque in the villages of Al-Lubban al-Sharqiya in Nablus, Ramon and Burqa, in Ramallah, and Beit Aksa, in Jerusalem.
According to the report, two Palestinians aged 11 and 12 were injured as Israeli settlers threw stones and Molotov cocktails towards a Palestinian school bus and house in Dura town, and in the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron.
Israeli settlers regularly carry out attacks against Palestinian properties and Muslim and Christian holy places. Palestinians complain that the Israeli government does not pursue settlers responsible for the attacks.
Israeli estimates that some 430,000 settlers live in settlements in the West Bank, and about 220,000 settlers in settlements built in East Jerusalem.
