Amnesty Calls for End to Occupation as West Bank Violence Surges
Amnesty International says a recent wave of settler attacks and Israeli military violence in the occupied West Bank highlights the need to dismantle settlements and end Israel’s occupation and system of apartheid. At least four Palestinians, including a child, have been killed in settler attacks over more than a week, the organization said.
Attacks have been reported in Al-Mughayir, Duma, Deir Dibwan, Beitin and Aqraba, with dozens of people wounded and homes, vehicles and other property damaged. The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem and others have described the attacks as a “pogrom.” Amnesty said Israeli forces had stood by during some incidents and taken part in others.
Heba Morayef, Amnesty’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, called the violence part of a decades-long state-backed campaign to dispossess and oppress Palestinians. She said settlements in occupied Palestinian territory violate international law and constitute a war crime, and urged Israel to halt settlement expansion and remove existing settlements.
The latest attacks began after Binyamin Achimair, a 14-year-old Israeli from the Mal’achei Hashalom outpost, went missing on April 12 while herding sheep near Al-Mughayir, east of Ramallah. Settlers attacked residents and property as the search continued. Achimair’s body was found the next day. Israeli officials called his death a “terrorist attack”; no Palestinian resistance group has claimed responsibility. A 21-year-old Palestinian man was arrested Monday in connection with the killing, according to the report.
Separately, Israeli troops and armored vehicles besieged Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem, for a 50-hour raid beginning late Friday. The camp is home to more than 6,000 Palestinians. By Saturday, 14 people, including at least one child, had been killed and more than 40 wounded, while homes were destroyed and scores arrested. Palestinian officials said troops also attacked first responders. A volunteer paramedic was shot in the leg.
The violence came as the U.S. State Department announced sanctions against far-right settler leaders, including Ben Zion Gopstein, founder of Lehava. The Biden administration is also reportedly considering sanctions against the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda battalion over alleged war crimes in the West Bank before the Gaza war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he would fight such sanctions “with all my strength.”
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