Israeli security forces “must immediately end their active participation in and support for settler attacks on Palestinians,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said Tuesday.
The statement follows a wave of settler attacks on Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank triggered by the killing of a 14-year-old Israeli boy in what authorities say was a militant attack. The Palestinian Health Ministry says seven Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers since the attacks began Friday, and another 75 have been wounded. Israeli authorities have urged people not to resort to vigilante attacks as tensions soar. But rights groups have long accused Israeli forces of routinely ignoring settler attacks or even taking part in them.
Tensions in the region have ramped up since the start of the latest Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, when Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a devastating cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that has caused widespread devastation and killed over 33,800 people, according to local health officials.
World leaders have urged Israel not to retaliate after Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles over the weekend in an unprecedented revenge mission that pushed the Middle East closer to a regionwide war. The attack happened less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consular building.
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