UN human rights experts have warned that violent attacks against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, including physical assaults and property demolitions carried out by Jewish settlers, have increased drastically in recent months.

More than 210 violent incidents by settlers were recorded during the first three months of 2021, including one Palestinian death, the report said.

During the course of 2020, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) documented 771 incidents of settler violence, which caused injuries to 133 Palestinians, mostly in the areas of Hebron, Jerusalem, Nablus and Ramallah.

The Israeli targeting of EU-funded aid structures to the Palestinians tripled in 2021 compared with 2020. Israeli settlers damaged & stole donor funded aid, said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territories. pic.twitter.com/kZhIvLxK4g

— Chris Hutchinson (@ChrisHu34451470) March 19, 2021

They also documented deliberate damage caused to 9,646 trees and 184 vehicles.

The group of experts for the report included Michael Lynk, the UN’s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, special rapporteur on adequate housing and right to non-discrimination, and independent expert Claudia Mahler.

“We call upon the international community to impose meaningful costs on Israel’s protracted occupation, and to demand that the occupying power halt its settlement enterprise immediately,” they said.

“Palestinians must be protected from settler violence and the perpetrators must be held to account for their actions.”

The report referred to an incident in Hebron on March 13, which saw a Palestinian family of parents and eight children attacked by ten armed settlers. The children were left traumatized and the parents hospitalized as a result of their injuries.

“We are deeply worried by the atmosphere of impunity in which these attacks are taking place.”

Israeli settlers broke into Palestinian private shops to steal the furniture. The shops owners can’t reach them because the Israel army closed the area after Ibrahmi Mosque Massacre, Palestinian owners of the shops can’t open them but settlers break in without accountability. pic.twitter.com/gb8CVVC2Yo

— Issa Amro عيسى عمرو 🇵🇸 (@Issaamro) April 16, 2021

Last night, Jewish settlers broke into the northern West Bank village of Jaloud, cut trees and a fence surrounding a plot of land, stole equipment and caused damage to construction material at the site, according to Ghassan Daghlas, the Palestinian official in charge of the settlements’ portfolio in the northern West Bank.

At least 600,000 Jewish settlers live in more than 250 illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. According to international law, the West Bank and East Jerusalem are classified as occupied Palestinian territories and all Jewish settlements built there and the settlers who live in them are illegal.

(MEMO, PC, Social Media)