Palestine urges int’l community to end Israeli vandalism, violence

“These crimes are an integral part of the bloody and systematic Israeli escalation against our people with the aim of breaking their resilience and adherence to their just and legitimate national rights and land,” the ministry said in a statement released on Monday.

The statement added that the Tel Aviv regime is making attempts “to force our people to surrender, coexist with occupation and [illegal] settlements, and accept them as a fait accompli that is difficult to change.”

It described the organized attacks by armed settlers on Palestinian civilians and their land and property as tantamount to the actions of Israeli military forces, stressing that they are Israel's official denial of the just and legitimate rights of Palestinians which have been officially endorsed by the United Nations.

The Palestinian foreign ministry then held the Israeli regime responsible for the escalating tensions across the occupied territories, stating that the current situation threatens an explosion that would plunge the entire Middle East region into a spiral of violence.

The ministry then warned the international community that the ongoing hostilities would have adverse effects on the so-called two-state solution, as well as efforts to ensure calm, resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and achieve security and stability in the region.

Earlier in the day, Israeli settlers vandalized and sprayed hundreds of Palestinian-owned olive trees in the West Bank with chemicals.

Israeli authorities also demolished four Palestinian-owned buildings in occupied East al-Quds and the West Bank under the pretext of construction without a permit.

Incidents of sabotage and violence by settlers against Palestinians and their property have become a daily occurrence throughout the occupied territories, particularly in the West Bank.

However, Israeli authorities rarely prosecute settlers, and the vast majority of the files are closed due to deliberate police failure to investigate them properly.

Settler violence includes property and mosque arson attacks, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, and attacks on vulnerable homes.

Israeli settlers have noticeably escalated attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in recent months.

The United Nations has already warned of a surge in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians, mostly in the areas of al-Khalil, al-Quds, Nablus and Ramallah.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

All the settlements are illegal under international law. The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

Israel routinely demolishes Palestinian houses in the West Bank and East al-Quds, claiming the structures have been built without the so-called permits, which are almost impossible to obtain. They also sometimes order Palestinian owners to demolish their own houses or pay the demolition costs.

Israel has occupied thousands of dunums of Palestinian agricultural land to construct and expand settlements in various areas of the West Bank.

The regime also plans to force out Palestinian families from neighborhoods in East al-Quds in an attempt to replace them with settlers.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.