UN Documents Monthly Average of 99 Settler Attacks in 1st Half of 2023

Geneva, MINA – A total of 591 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians were documented in the first six months of 2023, with a monthly average of 99 attacks, the UN said yesterday, Wafa reported.

“That’s an average of 99 incidents every month and a 39% increase compared with the monthly average of the whole of 2022, which is 71,” Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said at a UN briefing in Geneva.

The number of settler attacks which resulted in Palestinian casualties, property damage, or both, in 2022 was already the highest since OCHA started recording them in 2006, Laerke said.

He pointed out that Palestinian communities who rely on herding are particularly vulnerable, saying that in the last two years, at least 399 people were forcibly displaced due to settler violence targeting seven communities engaged in herding across the occupied Palestinian territory.

“Israeli settlements are illegal under international law,” he said. “They deepen humanitarian needs due to their impact on livelihoods, food security and access to essential services.”

Numerous communities throughout the West Bank are under threat of forced displacement as a result of a coercive environment created by demolitions, settlement activities, and other harmful practices, Laerke added. (T/RE1/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)