Israel has sealed entrances to the West Bank town of Al-Mughayyir for 20 days [Getty]
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the escalating attacks of the Israeli army and illegal settlers in the West Bank town of Al-Mughayyir, calling for international intervention to end the violence after officials warned of a 20-day “suffocating siege”.
The town, northeast of Ramallah, has had its entrance gates sealed, with residents reportedly permitted to move in and out for only two hours each day. The ministry said the restrictions were aimed at isolating the community and displacing its population.
In a statement, the ministry said Israeli measures also included preventing ambulances from entering the town amid what it described as the indiscriminate targeting of residents.
It said the escalating attacks by the Israeli army and settlers across the West Bank formed part of a wider policy aimed at “creating a reality of killing, terror, and forced displacement” while altering conditions on the ground.
“These Israeli actions are an attempt to isolate and besiege the town militarily and economically and displace its residents,” the ministry said.
It also warned that the “continued provision of protection, weapons, and political and legal cover” for illegal settlers could lead to “an escalation with uncontrollable repercussions.”
The ministry called for urgent international action to halt the attacks, urging the international community and other countries to move beyond “mere verbal condemnation” and adopt “deterrent political, legal, and economic measures”, while providing international protection for the Palestinian people.
It also called for international jurisdiction to be activated to prosecute those responsible for violations, for settlement products to be blocked from international markets, and for entities that provide settlers with weapons, funding or other forms of support to be held accountable.
The comments came after three Palestinians were injured in a settler attack in Al-Mughayyir on Friday, while Israeli forces and illegal settlers reportedly stopped an ambulance that was travelling to transport the wounded.
On Saturday, dozens of masked Israeli settlers also attacked homes near the occupied West Bank village of Qusra, following a separate siege by settlers in the area earlier this month.
According to several reports, the settlers surrounded a Palestinian home and threw stones at it while seven Palestinians were trapped inside.
The violence in Qusra has drawn international condemnation, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes in Gaza, to condemn the incident and attribute the violence to a “handful of rioters”.
The Israeli government has previously described those involved in settler violence as a “fringe minority”.
However, such characterisation is disputed by rights groups and international organisations – with a UN inquiry in June finding that Israeli authorities were directly involved in settler attacks that have killed, injured and displaced Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The occupied West Bank has experienced a sharp increase in Israeli military raids and attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.