Over the past few days, amid the US-Israeli war on Iran, Israeli settlers are reported to have launched a wave of violence in the occupied West Bank.
Since the start of the war on February 28, masked settlers have allegedly killed at least five Palestinians, injured many residents, sexually assaulted and paraded one man, burned cars and homes, and rampaged through villages, according to Reuters reports citing eyewitnesses and rights groups.
While settler violence is hardly new in the West Bank, the latest surge has been enabled by the curbs on movement imposed during the war on Iran, with military roadblocks preventing ambulances from reaching victims quickly, Reuters said.
West Bank — located to the west of the Jordan river — is a part of the Occupied Palestinian Territories along with Gaza. The latest round of violence comes amid the Israeli government’s push for new settlements on the territory “as attention shifts to the Iran war”, according to an Associated Press report.