The other war it has waged against Israel and the Palestinians in recent weeks is being fought in the West Bank, not the Gaza Strip. Since the day Hamas launched its bloody attack on Tel Aviv, the activities of Israeli military forces have not spared the other largest part of Palestine: Nearly 200 Palestinians have died since October 7, according to the UN. The number and intensity of clashes with Israeli settlers increased. What makes the situation worse is the Benjamin Netanyahu government’s plan to expand settlements with an allocation of approximately 70 million euros. It’s a plan that the European Union has sharply objected to.
The High Commissioner wrote in an article: “I was shocked to learn that in the midst of war the Israeli government is ready to allocate new funds to build more illegal settlements. This is not self-defense and will not make Israel safer.” tweet European Union foreign policy representative Josep Borrell. “The settlements represent a serious violation of international humanitarian law and represent Israel’s greatest security challenge,” Borrell added.
The Palestinian Authority also condemned the plan, branding it as part of a “global war against the Palestinian people, their land and their sanctities.” Settler settlements, which have been ongoing since 1967, have been favored by the Netanyahu government in recent years under pressure from the most right-wing parties in the Israeli political environment, despite calls and condemnations from the international community. For Palestinians, settlements aim to prevent the formation of their own state and plunder important resources such as agriculture and oil. According to many Israelis, the resources belong to Tel Aviv.
The presence of settlers has caused and continues to cause strong tensions in various parts of the West Bank. Tensions that often lead to violence. The war in Gaza has given new life to the most extremists among Israelis, according to Human Rights Watch. The NGO writes that “settlers have killed 15 Palestinians” during a series of attacks on Palestinian villages since the beginning of the conflict. Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem reports that since the beginning of the war, 16 villages and 880 Palestinians living in them have been completely displaced due to these attacks.
This type of violence was also harshly criticized by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is considered among the EU leaders closest to Tel Aviv: “We must prevent the spread of violence, and therefore peaceful coexistence is only possible by resolving the two,” she said. “The Palestinian people and their Arab neighbors need assurance that forced displacement will be out of the question, but that an independent Palestinian state (with Gaza and the West Bank reunited) and governed by a reformed Palestinian Authority is a viable possibility. And to that end , unacceptable violence. Von der Leyen added that extremists in the West Bank must be stopped. The US and the UK also harshly criticized the new settlement project.
In addition to the conflicts with the settlers, there are also raids by the Israeli army. Tel Aviv is trying to clear Hamas supporters from the West Bank: The terrorist group’s presence has increased over the years, in line with the loss of consensus of the Palestinian Authority, which governs the region, unlike what happened in Gaza. Nearly 200 Palestinians have been killed in raids on the West Bank since the beginning of the conflict with Hamas, including dozens in the Jenin refugee camp, and these attacks have not stopped even during a ceasefire declared in the Strip.
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Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
