Since the Gaza war began on October 7, 2023 and as of January 3, 2024, 313 Palestinians, including 80 children, have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem reported the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA). The number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem in 2023 (507) marks the highest number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank since OCHA started recording casualties in 2005. 

Settlers attacking Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank (Photo: Yesh Din)

According OCHA, since October 7, Israeli occupation forces have injured 3,949 Palestinians, including at least 593 children; 52 per cent in the context of search-and-arrest and other operations and 40 per cent of them in the context of demonstrations. Another 91 Palestinians have been injured by settlers and 12 other Palestinians were injured by either Israeli forces or settlers. Some 33 per cent of those injuries have been caused by live ammunition, compared with 9 per cent in the first nine months of 2023.  

On Monday, Yesh Din, a human rights group, said that settlers killed at least 10 Palestinians and torched dozens of homes in the occupied West Bank in 2023, making it the most violent year on record for settler attacks. Numerous attacks were carried out by large groups of settlers, with the violence spiking after Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel, said the Israeli human rights group.

“At least 10 Palestinians were killed by settlers and dozens of homes and vehicles were set on fire” last year, it said. 

OCHA counted 1,225 incidents of settler violence in 2023. According to OCHA, between October 7 and December 30, at least 198 Palestinian households of 1,208 people, among them 586 children, have been displaced due to settler violence and military restrictions. This accounts for 78% of the 1,539 people, including 756 children who have been displaced in such incidents in 2023.

OCHA said that there was a daily average of three settler-related incidents in the first eight months of 2023 compared to the two-per-day average in 2022 — the highest rate since the beginning of records in 2006 “Settler violence is the policy of the Israeli government,” Yesh Din charged the ruling far-right coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which includes settlers and racist ministers.

Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=31481