Israeli foreign minister slams settler ‘terror’ against Palestinians

JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has decried a recent settler attack against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as “terror”.

Dozens of masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians in the rural area of Mesafer Yatta in Hebron city on Wednesday. Twelve people, including a child, were injured.

Attackers, who even stabbed some of the goats of the Palestinian farmers in the area, also threw stones at Palestinian houses and vehicles.

"This violent incident is horrific and it is terror. This isn’t the Israeli way and it isn’t the Jewish way,” Lapid said on Twitter.

According to data from the Israeli Defense Ministry, a total of 370 incidents of violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers in the West Bank were reported in 2020, 42 of them against Israeli police and soldiers.

Israeli and Palestinian estimates indicate that there are about 650,000 settlers in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts.

Under international law, all Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal.