In recent days, a renewed wave of violence has swept the West Bank.
On Friday, a 14-year-old Israeli teenager went missing, prompting Israeli settlers to riot inside a Palestinian village, Al Mughayir. Jihad Abu Aliya, a 25-year-old resident, was shot dead during a mob attack, according to the village’s mayor, Amin Abu Aliya.
The teenager, Binyamin Achimair, was found dead on Saturday after an intensive search; Israeli officials said he had been killed in an act of terrorism and vowed to track down the perpetrators. In response, Israeli settlers, some of them armed, carried out a series of mob attacks in Palestinian cities, setting homes and cars on fire, according to Palestinian witnesses.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Israelis to allow security forces to search for Achimair’s killers, but did not denounce mob attacks on Palestinians. Human rights groups have long charged that Israel turns a blind eye to settler violence and rarely brings perpetrators to justice.
In images Distributed on Sunday by Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group that tracks Jewish extremist violence in the West Bank, hooded figures can be seen setting a car on fire while Israeli soldiers watch nearby without intervening.
The United Nations human rights office said Tuesday that Israeli security forces “must immediately end their active participation in and support for settler attacks against Palestinians.”
“Israeli authorities must instead prevent new attacks, including by holding those responsible accountable,” said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the office. “Those reasonably suspected of criminal acts, including murder or other unlawful killings, must be brought to justice,” she added.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller condemned Achimair’s murder in a statement Monday. But he also said Washington was “increasingly concerned about the violence against Palestinian civilians and their property that occurred in the West Bank after Achimair’s disappearance.”
“We strongly condemn these murders and our thoughts are with their loved ones,” Miller said. “The violence must stop. Civilians are never legitimate targets.”
Nick Cumming-Bruce contributed with reports.
