The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday that the forced displacement due to settler attacks and crimes included 40 Palestinian communities, in light of the increase in these attacks in various areas of the West Bank, under the protection of the occupation forces.

The ministry explained - in a statement on its account on the X platform - that the number of Bedouin communities that were forcibly displaced due to crimes and attacks by what it called the settler militias reached 40 Bedouin communities.

She added that she views with great concern the crime of forced displacement committed by settlers against Bedouin communities throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, especially in Masafer Yatta (south) and the Jordan Valley (east).

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said that the deportation operations, the latest of which was the deportation of Palestinian Bedouin families from the Umm al-Jimal area in the northern Jordan Valley, are being carried out with the support and protection of the occupation army and under the direct supervision of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The ministry considered that "this crime amounts to ethnic cleansing, and falls within the framework of the ongoing gradual annexation of the West Bank and emptying it of its original owners, and allocating it as a strategic depth for settlement, and controlling more of the natural resources of the State of Palestine, on the path to burying and undermining any opportunity to embody the Palestinian state on the ground with East Jerusalem as its capital."

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry stated that it is following up on these crimes and submitting international reports about them to the relevant international courts, considering that all decisions or sanctions issued by the international community or countries regarding settlements and settlers did not constitute a deterrent that would force the occupation to stop these attacks.

The Foreign Ministry called for deterrent international sanctions "not only on extremist settlers and their armed militias, but also on ministers and officials in the Israeli government who provide protection, support, funding and backing, such as Smotrich and Ben-Gvir."

According to data from the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission (governmental) reviewed by Anadolu Agency, settlers carried out a total of 1,530 attacks in the West Bank from the beginning of 2024 until the end of last July.

The data indicated that 18 Palestinians were killed by settlers' bullets and more than 785 were injured as a result of these attacks since October 7.

According to data from the Israeli Peace Now movement, about half a million Israelis live in 146 large settlements and 144 outposts built on the West Bank, not including occupied East Jerusalem.

Today, Al Jazeera's correspondent said that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stormed the village of Al-Malha in the town of Za'tara, east of Bethlehem, while extremist settlers fenced off a dirt road leading to Palestinian homes in the Nab' Ghazal area in the northern Jordan Valley. Settlers also burned mountainous lands in Khirbet Yarza, east of Tubas in the West Bank.

In conjunction with its devastating war on the Gaza Strip, since October 7, 2023, the occupation army expanded its operations in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, while the settlers intensified their attacks, which resulted in the martyrdom of 543 Palestinians and the injury of about 5,200 others, according to data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Source: Social media + Anadolu Agency