From 34m
ago
09.02
CEST
Settlers
reportedly attack Palestinian villages as major West Bank settlement expansion
set to be approved
Welcome
to our live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza. Several Palestinian people are
reported to have been injured in an overnight attack by Israeli settlers in the
southern West Bank village of Susya, south of Hebron, according to the Times of
Israel. A man and his wife were reportedly injured in the attack and were taken
to hospital to be treated.
Separately,
Israeli settlers were reported to have attacked the village of Atara, also in
the occupied West Bank, and set fire to several Palestinian-owned vehicles.
There were no immediate reports of any casualties or arrests.
The
attacks come amid a wave of violence in the West Bank, where more than 1,000
Palestinians are reported to have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers
since 7 October 2023.
Accountability
for settlers who commit acts of violence against Palestinians is extremely
rare, particularly under Israel’s current rightwing government.
Israel’s
far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Wednesday that about
3,400 new housing units would be built in key Israeli-occupied territory,
effectively burying “the idea of a Palestinian state”.
As my
colleague Peter Beaumont notes in this story, the so-called E1 plan would
extend the existing Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim towards Jerusalem,
further cutting occupied East Jerusalem from the West Bank, and further
separating the north and south of the territory. The plan still requires formal
approval but it is expected to pass a final procedural hurdle, despite huge
international opposition.
The
announcement comes after some of Israel’s key western allies, such as
Australia, Britain, Canada and France, pledged to soon recognise Palestinian
statehood, under certain conditions, because of the humanitarian crisis Israel
has caused in Gaza.
“This
plan buries the idea of a Palestinian state,” Smotrich told journalists on
Thursday. “Anyone in the world today who tries to recognise a Palestinian state
will receive an answer from us on the ground. Not in documents, not in
decisions or declarations – but in facts.” We will have more on this and the
other developments coming out of the Middle East shortly.
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