Israel uses settlers to advance ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, UN expert says

Israeli settlers have erected tents for a new illegal settlement outpost near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, while separate groups of settlers have besieged the village of Qusra for a week. Settlers pitched tents in the Wadi Zeytun area near the village of Umm Safa, northwest of Ramallah, on Sunday in an attempt to establish a new settlement outpost. Reporting from Ramallah, Al Jazeera's Tharwat Shakra said settlers also began establishing a separate outpost in the village of Burqa on the same day. Meanwhile, in the Ras al-Ain area of the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, an Israeli settler siege on three families has entered a second week, with 15 Palestinians, including two children, besieged in their homes. Israeli soldiers rotated their positions and erected a tent in front of residents' homes after spending the previous two days dismantling one that settlers had tried to put up there.

In separate incidents on Sunday, Al Jazeera reporters in the West Bank said settlers attacked a Palestinian home in the town of Beit Imrin, north of Nablus, and detained those inside. Israeli forces then arrived and arrested nine people from the house before withdrawing. Soldiers also blocked Palestinian Red Crescent teams from reaching the area and confiscated the keys to ambulances and medical-relief vehicles. Attacks in Hebron's al-Jaabari neighbourhood left Palestinians injured, including some by gunfire, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, stated that Israeli settler violence and the ongoing siege of three Palestinian homes in Qusra should be understood as part of Israel's decades-long rule of impunity, which has now reached a climax. She said Israel has no right to carry out military incursions on Palestinian territory and is instead obligated to protect civilians from military action. Israeli officials, however, appear to be collaborating with settlers rather than restraining them. Albanese said Israel has outsourced coercion to the settlers and is using them to advance ethnic cleansing, calling it a crime and utter terrorism that should be investigated and prosecuted. She added that while Israel's endgame may be ethnic cleansing, it is using war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide as the means to continue the Nakba, the catastrophic ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of Palestinians in 1948 during the creation of Israel.

Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, described the situation in the West Bank as extremely dangerous, saying settler groups were carrying out an average of 30 attacks every day as they spearhead a campaign to seize land and displace Palestinians. Barghouti said the goal of the campaign was annexation and displacement, and called for Arab and international pressure on Washington to halt Israeli actions in the occupied West Bank as well as Gaza. Israeli attacks in the West Bank have intensified since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023. About 750,000 Israeli settlers live in 156 illegal settlements and 360 illegal outposts across the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. The UN recognises Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory as illegal under international law.