TEHRAN - Armed Israeli settlers squatting in illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land are increasing their attacks against Palestinian families, opening live fire against them as well as burning down their homes and damaging property. As per the norm over the past decades, the settlers are staging their attacks with the Israeli occupation military forces looking on and doing nothing to intervene.

It is against international law for any entity militarily occupying another people’s land not to provide the people it is occupying with security and protection. But as with the ever-increasing settlement construction and expansion in the occupied territories that are in violation of international law and not recognized by the international community, everything Israel does breaks international law.

The latest attacks by the settlers have triggered a response by the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland who says he is “alarmed by the escalating violence in the occupied West Bank.” Wennesland noted that there have been attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in villages near the city of Nablus. Palestinian media say the attacks have been more widespread.

The head of just one of several village councils in northwestern Nablus has told Anadolu Agency that the settlers assaulted the village using firearms. He also says that they set the village's barracks on fire and attacked a number of Palestinian homes.

Israeli regime forces also attacked Palestinian protesters in the flashpoint neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied Jerusalem al-Quds. The Associated Press news agency has reported that one of its photographers was "pushed and beaten by Israeli police in an unprovoked attack" while covering the protests, requiring hospital treatment. The AP says it was "outraged" while the Foreign Press Association has called for an investigation.

Critics say it is highly unlikely that Israel will take any action, citing the regime’s past behavior following UNGA resolutions.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's office reacted by accusing the settlers of intimidating Palestinians "with the encouragement and protection of the Israeli occupation.” In a statement, the Palestinian presidency called on the international community to promptly take measures to stop Israeli “settlers terrorism against the defenseless Palestinian people” in the Palestinian territories which were militarily seized and occupied by Israeli forces since 1967. The statement notes that the settlers’ terrorism is increasing on a daily basis with the encouragement and protection of the Israeli occupation, adding that what is being witnessed today of settlers attacking defenseless and innocent civilians in their homes is the biggest evidence of what is occurring. It has further called on the “international community to take swift actions to compel the Israelis to stop this terrorism committed against defenseless civilians and provide them with international protection in light of the heinous terror committed against them before the eyes of the world and the international community.”

The rising settler terror was a topic of discussion between Israeli Minister Omer Barlev and a visiting American diplomat. Following the talks, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett denounced his minister for raising the matter. Bennett said the occupied West Bank settlers are “the defensive bulwark for all of us, and we must strengthen and support them.”

The most extremist armed Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank are also increasing their outposts (closer to the Palestinians) where dozens of the settlers squat. These outposts are not even part of the Israeli settlements; monitoring groups say these settler terrorists pose the most dangerous threat to Palestinian families. In the most recent severe attacks that took place near al-Khalil also known as Hebron, the footage shows armed masked settlers throwing rocks into Palestinian homes. Monitoring groups say one of the rocks hit a 3-year-old boy, leaving him unconscious. The settlers then went on to smash car windows.

Activists say the idea is to intimate and traumatize the Palestinians into packing up and leaving their ancestral homes and land. They say this is all being done with the blessing of the Israeli regime. For example, last month, settlers suddenly took over a new children’s playground in the Bedouin village of Susiya saying it was built “illegally.” Israeli occupation troops followed and blocked Palestinian residents from entering the site, instead, the Israeli forces declared the whole village a closed military zone. Susiya resident researcher for right group B’Tselem Nasser Nawaja says “as Palestinians, you feel constantly threatened here that our lives can be taken over not just by settler violence but by the [Israeli cabinet] itself, which lets the violence continue.”

The increase in settler terrorism comes as the United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution endorsing the Palestinian people's right to self-determination. A majority of 168 countries voted for the resolution. The United States joined the Israeli regime and three others (the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Nauru) in voting against the Palestinian people's right to self-determination.

The draft of the resolution called on “all States and United Nations specialized agencies and organizations to continue to support the Palestinian people in the early realization of their right to self-determination.” It also reaffirmed the Palestinian people’s “right to their independent State of Palestine.” The resolution’s text stressed “the urgency of achieving without delay an end to the Israeli occupation” and recalled, “the conclusion of the [International] Court [of Justice], in its advisory opinion of 9 July 2004, that the construction of the wall by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”

In a statement, Palestinian Foreign Minister, Riyad al-Maliki, said "the adoption by the UNGA of the draft resolution affirms Israel's failure, and it is an international response to Israel's crimes and settler violence as well as of the Palestinian people's sovereignty over their territories.” He called for the implementation of international law, including the rules set by the International Court of Justice, which affirmed that the apartheid wall and settlements constructed by Israel deprive the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination. Al-Maliki also urged the UN "to assume its responsibilities to safeguard this inalienable and non-negotiable right and take practical steps that would end the occupation and dismantle Israel's settlements." The Palestinian Foreign Minister further called on Israel, as an occupying power, to stop exploiting the natural resources in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Critics say it is highly unlikely that Israel will take any action, citing the regime’s past behavior following UNGA resolutions. This is not the first resolution censuring Israel (this time for its lack of action). According to the UN Watch, last year the UNGA condemned the Israeli regime more than any other country on the planet. In 2020, The UN General Assembly passed 17 resolutions condemning Israel which is just shy of three times more than the rest of the world combined. That means 70 percent of UN resolutions last year that condemned countries were focused on the Israeli regime.

While UN General Assembly’s resolutions are non-binding, they do carry major symbolic importance as the UN Security Council resolutions which are binding (if passed), are seen as more biased. Critics say as long as the Security Council has five veto powers and so long as one of those powers is the United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, then Washington will always veto any anti-Israeli resolution. Until the Security Council is reformed into a just and fair council, Israel will continue to terrorize the Palestinians until they leave their ancestral homes. So-called peace talks on the other hand (over the past seventy-odd decades) have seen Palestinian territories shrink further.

Analysts argue the only other option left for Palestinians to survive in their own land and avoid total annihilation is armed resistance.