PARIS: France on Thursday condemned violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, calling it a “policy of terror” aimed at displacing Palestinians and urging Israeli authorities to protect Palestinians from the violence.

UN figures show that daily settler attacks have more than doubled since Oct 7.

In 235 attacks by settlers against Palestinians recorded by OCHA, including several deadly incidents, more than a third involved “using firearms to threaten Palestinians, including by opening fire”.

“Concerning the West Bank, I’d like to express the strongest condemnation by France of the violence carried out by the settlers against the Palestinians,” foreign ministry spokesperson Anne-Claire Legendre told a press conference.

UN figures show attacks have more than doubled since Oct 7

“Violence which has the clear objective of forced displacement of the Palestinians and a policy of terror.” She said the Israeli authorities needed to take the necessary measures to protect the Palestinian population and warned that the settlement policy harmed the two-state solution.

The human rights NGO Yesh Din studied more than 1,000 cases of settler violence submitted to the Israeli justice system between 2005 and 2021 and found that 92 per cent of cases resulted in a dismissal, the group said.

France’s Legendre also said that about half the 100 tonnes of aid France had sent to Gaza had entered the enclave. She added it was not up to Israel to decide the future governance of Gaza, which she said should be part of a future Palestinian state.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2023