Attacks by illegal Israeli settlers across the occupied West Bank surged 63 percent from January through July compared with the same period last year, a Palestinian government agency said on Monday.
The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said it recorded 4,113 attacks during the seven-month period, up from 2,524 a year earlier, an increase of 1,589 incidents.
The commission said the surge coincided with the expansion of illegal settlement outposts, particularly pastoral ones, as well as the arming of illegal Israeli settlers and the incorporation of some into security formations.
It also cited Israeli military protection and declining accountability as factors behind the rise.
The agency said weak international deterrence and accountability had helped turn attacks by illegal Israeli settlers from isolated incidents into an organised tool to impose new realities on the ground and push Palestinian communities towards displacement.
On Saturday, the commission said the occupied West Bank had 592 illegal Israeli settlements and outposts, while Israel unlawfully controlled about 42 percent of the territory.
It put the number of illegal Israeli settlers living in the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, at around 780,000 as of the end of July, comprising 333,600 in settlements in East Jerusalem and 446,400 elsewhere in the occupied West Bank.
Attacks by the Israeli forces and illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza have killed 1,182 Palestinians and injured more than 12,000 others, while around 24,000 have been arrested, according to official Palestinian figures.
