Monday 24 February 2025 
Palestinians continue to face racist attacks in the occupied West Bank, including in El Khalil, the target of serious violations, all committed by settlers with the complicity of the Zionist occupation forces.
The escalation was amplified when the Zionist army decided to close the Ibrahimi mosque in the city of El Khalil last Friday on the occasion of a Jewish holiday. According to local estimates, as many as 37,000 settlers stormed the city, as the Zionist army erected a number of barriers and deployed heavily near the Old City to support the settler incursions.
The latter did not content themselves with celebrating their feast. They attacked Palestinians and their businesses, injuring several of them.
Ahmed Al-Tamimi, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said that “the settlers’ disregard for the Ibrahimi Mosque and all parts of the Old City is part of the Zionist arbitrary measures aimed at forcing citizens (Palestinians) to stop praying in the mosque and leave by force of arms their homes inherited from their parents and grandparents”.
The assault by the settlers was accompanied by the installation of mobile tents and a series of arrests affecting all segments of Palestinian society.
In their monthly report, the prisoners’ institutions specified that the arrests during the month of October reached the number of 445 Palestinians, including 35 children and 19 women, in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In reaction to this escalation, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, warned that “such acts could aggravate an already tense environment”.
“Everyone has a responsibility to act against extremists and to denounce all acts of violence,” he added.
For his part, the Assistant Secretary General for Palestine and the Occupied Arab Territories of the Arab League, Saeed Abu Ali, said on Monday that the escalation of large-scale attacks and the continuing and organized settler terrorism, in particular in El Khalil , constitute a “dangerous indicator”.
He called on the United Nations and international human rights organizations to “assume their political, legal and humanitarian responsibilities and to put pressure on the occupation authorities to put an end to these crimes and respect the international conventions that ensure the safety of civilians”.
For its part, the United States called on the occupation authorities to take steps to improve the security situation in the West Bank. For the American National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, “a negotiated two-state solution remains the best way to achieve lasting peace (in the Middle East)”.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Monday that 147 Palestinians have been martyred by Zionist army bullets in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of this year. The United Nations has described this year as the bloodiest in the West Bank since 2006.