West Bank: Record violence of Israeli settlers in 2023...and talks about return of settlement to Gaza

At a time when acts of violence committed by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank reached a record high in 2023, the Israeli Ministers of Finance and National Security considered that “the war is an opportunity to encourage the residents of the Gaza Strip to emigrate.”

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich considered that "the correct solution in the Gaza Strip is to encourage the migration of its residents to countries that agree to receive them."

He said in statements reported by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth that "the army will permanently control Gaza to ensure security."

Smotrich continued, during a meeting with his party, saying that they should establish a new settlement in the Gaza Strip, noting that “future solutions will not be similar to their predecessors in Gaza.”

Israeli Channel 12 quoted Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir as saying that the war is an opportunity to encourage the project of migrating Gaza residents to other countries, and “an opportunity for the Israelis to return to the settlements in the Strip.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his intention to push the residents of the Gaza Strip to what he called “voluntary migration,” but the United States refused to reoccupy Gaza or displace its residents despite its continued support for Israel.

Settler violence escalated

On the other hand, acts of violence committed by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank set a record high in 2023, and resulted in the martyrdom of at least 10 people, according to the Israeli non-governmental human rights organization Yesh Din.

The organization stressed, in a statement, that “settler violence is the policy of the Israeli government,” noting that the number of incidents, their seriousness, the number of Israelis involved, and the outcome of acts of violence reached record numbers in 2023, especially since last October 7.

Yesh Din reported that the past two months “were the most violent” with 242 violent incidents.

Dozens of Palestinian homes and vehicles were damaged by settlers in 2023, according to the organization, which has been tracking these acts of violence since 2006.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded 1,225 settler attacks on Palestinians during 2023.

Among these attacks, Yesh Din reported two very violent incidents committed by “a large number of Israeli settlers,” the first in Huwwara in February, and the second in Turmus Ayya in June, which are two Palestinian towns located between Nablus (north) and Ramallah (centre).

The organization explained that hundreds of Israelis attacked Palestinian towns and set fire to dozens of homes and vehicles.

In the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967, 490,000 settlers live among 3 million Palestinians. These settlements are illegal under international law.

Yesh Din expressed its doubts about the latest data published by the Israeli police, which indicate that this violence declined in 2023, compared to 2022.

The organization explains this by saying that the police are only counting the number of complaints submitted, which is decreasing due to the Palestinians’ lack of confidence in the Israeli authorities, especially since the formation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in December 2022, a government considered the most extremist in the history of the Hebrew state.

The West Bank has witnessed an escalation in violence since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, which resulted in the death of at least 317 Palestinians by bullets from occupation soldiers and settlers, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

TRT Arabic - Agencies