Palestine's UN envoy demands illegal Israeli settlers be disarmed as West Bank violence escalates

“And as if that was not enough, the Israeli prime minister concludes that the answer is more colonisation, more dispossession, more displacement, more violence,” he said.

“For years now we have warned of settlers’ violence with the backing of Israeli occupation forces as an integral part of the Israeli strategy to annex maximum Palestinian land with minimum Palestinians,” he said.

Stressing that “the tales about ‘settler hikers’ wandering around in the hills are ridiculous,” he said, “The settlers came with one objective in mind: Terrorising the population to uproot it. One provocation after another, one murder after another.”

He said Palestinians were entitled to international protection, arguing that Israel, as the occupying power, had a responsibility to protect the civilian population under international humanitarian law.

“Our people are entitled to international protection,” he said.

“Therefore, it is the responsibility of the international community to provide our people with protection,” Mansour added, urging the Security Council and the international community to take action.

“Israeli settlers must be disarmed. I repeat, must be disarmed,” he reiterated.

Attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers in the West Bank have escalated since Israel launched its genocide in Gaza in October 2023. At least 1,182 Palestinians have been killed, 13,000 injured and nearly 24,000 arrested in the occupied territory during the same period, according to official Palestinian figures.