Rights Group: Settlers Exploiting Attention to Gaza to Seize Land in West Bank

WEST BANK (KI) – Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem told the BBC that since the start of the Zionist regime’s war on October 7, it had documented “a concerted and organized effort by settlers to use the fact that the entire international and local attention is focused on Gaza and the northern parts of the occupied territories to try to seize land in the West Bank”.

According to data compiled by the rights group, covering the first six days following the start of the war, they recorded at least 46 separate incidents in which it said settlers threatened, physically attacked or damaged the property of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
“A lot of shepherding families and communities have fled because they were threatened in the past week by settlers,” said Roy Yellin, a spokesman for B’Tselem told the BBC.
“Settlers have been giving residents a deadline to leave and telling them if they don’t they will be harmed. And some villages have been totally emptied out,” Yellin added.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian health ministry stated that at least 95 Palestinians have been martyred in the occupied West Bank by Zionist troops and settlers.
Since October 7, more than 1,200 Palestinians have been detained in the West Bank, according to Palestinian officials.
On October 7, Hamas staged a large-scale operation in response to the desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque and increased settler violence.
The Zionist regime responded with intensive airstrikes on civilian targets in the Gaza Strip. The regime has also intensified the siege of Gaza, leaving the city, home to more than 2.3 million Palestinians, without water, electricity, fuel and internet.