Palestine's UN envoy demands Israeli occupiers be disarmed amid occupied West Bank violence

Palestine's UN envoy Riyad Mansour demanded Tuesday that Israeli occupiers be disarmed amid escalating violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, urging the international community to protect civilians.

"Israeli settlers must be disarmed as this Council's resolutions state to stop them from terrorizing our people. And Israeli settlers and occupation forces have to leave our land and leave us alone," Mansour told the Security Council.

"This Council and the General Assembly have adopted resolutions calling for such protection, but it is nowhere to be found," he added.

Mansour said Palestinians "continue being killed daily in bombardments in Gaza, in attacks by settlers and occupation forces in the West Bank," indicating that Palestinians are killed "as they sleep, as they tend to their groves, as they head to school, as they sit in their homes."

"Killed as if their lives never mattered, as if they were expendable, and they will continue being killed until those killing them are held accountable," he said.

He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pursuing policies that would deepen violence and displacement in the occupied West Bank.

"Israel is seeking escalation in the West Bank, whether to justify further repression, to facilitate annexation and displacement, or for electoral purposes; yes, confronted with the prospects of losing the upcoming election, Netanyahu is seeking electoral gains on the blood of Palestinians and even Israelis," he said.

Mansour said the prime minister's response to the violence was to pursue additional settlement and displacement.

"And as if that was not enough, the Israeli prime minister's conclusion is that the answer is more colonization, 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 is ridiculous," he said, "The settlers came with one objective in mind: Terrorizing 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 occupiers in the West Bank have escalated since Israel launched its genocide in the Gaza Strip 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.