(Douma) Faced with the increase in attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, several NGOs accuse the Israeli army of actively supporting the violence of certain Jewish settlers, emboldened by the strong support they receive from far-right ministers.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) recorded 1,096 attacks carried out by settlers between October 7 and March 31 in this territory occupied by Israel since 1967, or six per day on average, compared to three per day before the start of the ongoing war in Gaza, and two in 2022.
According to a count by the Israeli human rights NGO Yesh Din, violent acts by Israeli settlers recorded a record in 2023.
Since the Gaza war began on October 7, 537 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to the Palestinian Authority, and 14 Israelis have been killed there in Palestinian attacks or bombings, according to figures Israeli officials.
With each attack, similar testimonies: armed settlers, sometimes dressed in the same khaki fatigues as the army, attack Palestinian civilians, burn houses, cars, steal livestock, sometimes under the watch of passive soldiers.
On April 13, Palestinians in Douma saw hundreds of settlers attack their village and stab a resident after Israeli authorities announced that they had found the body of an Israeli teenager who was a regular at the Malachei Hashalom settlement outpost a few kilometers further south and had been missing since the previous day.
The army announced on April 22 that it had arrested a Douma resident accused of murdering the 14-year-old.
On April 13, the Israeli army “was present inside the village of Douma to ensure the safety of the settlers and protect them during” their descent, Souleiman Dawabsheh, head of the council of this village of a few people, assured AFP. thousands of inhabitants.
Questioned by AFP about these events, an Israeli military spokesperson responded that the mission of soldiers posted in the West Bank was to “protect the property and lives of all residents, and disperse clashes” if necessary.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on April 16 Israeli forces to cease “immediately their active participation and support” in settler attacks in the West Bank, calling on Israel to “prevent further attacks, notably by holding those responsible to account.”
Aside from annexed East Jerusalem, more than 490,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank, in settlements that the UN considers illegal under international law, among three million Palestinians. Settlement has continued under every Israeli government since 1967.
In the occupied West Bank, it has today “become very difficult […] to distinguish the army from the settlers”, told AFP Joel Carmel, a leader of the Israeli anti-occupation NGO Breaking the Silence, made up of former soldiers.
He notes the sociological change at work within the army, where religious-Zionist settlers have been much more visible in combat units and among senior officers for around ten years.
Since October 7, “we see settlers in military uniform” and the violence is “increasingly extreme” in the West Bank, says Ehud Krinis, an Israeli activist who helps Palestinians in the Hebron region.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses Israel of being responsible for the increase in settler violence since October 7.
“The Israeli army either participated in or did not protect Palestinians from violent settler attacks,” the NGO wrote in a report in mid-April.
HRW investigated five attacks by settlers between October and November 2023 in five Palestinian villages.
“Evidence shows that armed settlers, with the active participation of army units, have repeatedly blocked roads and attacked Palestinian communities: they have detained, assaulted and tortured residents, and driven them from their homes and lands at gunpoint,” the NGO concluded.
For Moayyad Bsharrat, an official of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, a Palestinian organization for the defense of farmers, since the arrival of Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, two figures of the extreme right, to the Israeli government formed in December 2022 by Benyamin Netanyahu, the settlers have “the green light” from the executive to attack the Palestinians.
The Israeli army told AFP it was examining “complaints concerning the behavior of soldiers not in accordance with orders.”
But according to Mr. Carmel, violent settlers and soldiers are only convicted “in very rare cases”: “the prosecution and the entire government apparatus are designed to protect them.”