Israel settler violence in West Bank has caused ‘largest forcible transfer’ of Palestinians since 7 October - rights group

Israeli settler violence in the Occupied West Bank has caused the “largest forcible transfer” of Palestinians since 7 October 2023, a rights group has revealed.

In a statement by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), it announced that violence by illegal Israeli settlers “in the north-east of the West Bank caused the largest wave of forcible transfers of Palestinian communities since the weeks following 7 October.”

The operation into Israeli-held territory by the Gaza-based Palestinian Resistance group, Hamas, on that date did not only draw a deadly response by Israel’s occupation forces against the besieged Strip, but has also resulted in Israel’s renewed and enforced crackdown on the West Bank.

Aside from thousands of more arrests of Palestinian civilians and some strikes and drone attacks carried out by Israeli forces in those occupied territories, there has been an increase in Israeli Jewish settlers’ violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, leading to many communities’ displacement.

Read: Israeli settlers arrested after ‘pogrom’ in West Bank that killed 1 Palestinian

According to the NRC, three communities consisting of 119 Palestinians were forced out of their homes in recent days due to such attacks, while two other communities were completely emptied. The rights group stated that it “calls on the international community to intervene and protect Palestinian communities”.

Allegra Pacheco, chief of party of the NRC-led West Bank Protection Consortium, reiterated that the group calls for the international community – including the United States and European Union – “to intervene with the Israeli authorities and protect these vulnerable communities.”

As the “occupying power” which has a responsibility for the safety of the occupied population, Israel is directly responsible “for the actions of violent settlers” who are under Israeli military protection, said Pacheco.

According to the NRC, “Palestinians are being forced to leave their land in what clearly constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law”. The rights group further stated that it “urges the international community to push Israel to prohibit Israeli settlers from entering Palestinian residential, agricultural and grazing areas. Military orders must close down all settler outposts, illegal under Israeli law, from where violence is planned and perpetrated.”

Read: Israeli army officials concerned over rising illegal settler violence in occupied West Bank