News - Middle East: The United Nations has voiced grave concern over escalating violence in the occupied West Bank.

The UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in Geneva on Tuesday that the Israeli regime forces “must immediately end their active participation in and support for settler attacks on Palestinians.”
“Israeli authorities must instead prevent further attacks, including by bringing those responsible to account.”

“Those reasonably suspected of criminal acts, including murder or other unlawful killings, must be brought to justice through a judicial process that complies with international human rights standards, following a prompt, impartial, independent, effective and transparent investigation.”

The statement from the UN’s human rights office was issued after a number of Palestinians were killed by Israeli settlers in a village south of Nablus.
Shamdasani said following the killing of a 14-year-old Israeli boy from a settler family at the weekend, “four Palestinians, including a child, were killed and Palestinian property was destroyed in revenge attacks.”
The UN rights office, she said, had received information that armed settlers and Israeli forces had entered a number of towns and villages.

“Dozens of Palestinians were reportedly injured, including through the use of firearms, by settlers and Israeli forces, and hundreds of homes and other buildings, as well as cars, were torched,” she said.

At least eight Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or armed settlers since April 12.
Palestinian authorities have reported an increasing number of attacks by settlers across the West Bank.
Salah Bani Jaber, the mayor of Aqraba, a town near the northern city of Nablus, said, “There were Israeli soldiers at the scene who stood idly by watching the settlers.”