France slams Israel settler violence as ‘policy of terror’

France yesterday condemned violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, calling it a “policy of terror” aimed at displacing Palestinians and urged Israeli authorities to protect Palestinians from the violence, Reuters reported.

UN figures show that daily settler attacks have more than doubled since 7 October.

“Concerning the West Bank, I’d like to express the strongest condemnation by France of the violence carried out by the settlers against the Palestinians,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anne-Claire Legendre told a press conference.

Violence which has the clear objective of forced displacement of the Palestinians and a policy of terror.

She said the Israeli authorities needed to take the necessary measures to protect the Palestinian population and warned that the settlement policy harmed the two-state solution.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk echoed her words. Speaking in Geneva yesterday, Turk said he was deeply concerned about the intensification of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. He said it was clear the Israeli occupation must end.

This year was already the deadliest in at least 15 years for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, with some 200 Palestinians killed, according to United Nations data. But in the three weeks after 7 October, 186 Palestinians, including 51 children, have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank; and an additional eight, including one child, have been killed by illegal Israeli settlers, according to the UN.

France’s Legendre also said that about half the 100 tonnes of aid France sent to Gaza had entered the enclave. She added it was not up to Israel to decide the future governance of Gaza, which she said should be part of a future Palestinian state.

READ: UN: Disease, hunger inevitable in Gaza