The Mission of the State of Palestine to Ireland would like to draw your attention to most recent settler terror campaign in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and kindly find attached the letter which was sent to the president of UNSC by the Palestinian permanent observer at the UN.

In recent days, the Israeli settler terror campaign has reached fever-pitch with gangs of settlers marauding through Palestinian towns and villages, attacking Palestinian civilians, causing death and injury, and destroying Palestinian property in the towns of Huwwara, Burin, Odala, Asira al-Qabaliyya near Nablus. At least 300 attacks were perpetrated by extremist settlers who went on a vengeance rampage after the killing of two Israelis this past weekend.

The horror inflicted on the town of Huwwara was especially shocking as settlers set fire to at least 35 homes, causing destruction to at least 40 other homes and terrorizing Palestinian families, who were forced to flee for safety, and burning dozens of vehicles, leaving behind a harrowing scene of destruction. Terrorist settlers also attacked the fire fighters that had rushed to the scene to battle the blazes and medical personnel who had come to assist the wounded, all under the watch of Israel’s occupying forces (IOF).

Settler shooting also killed a Palestinian man, Sameh Aqtash, age 37, and 100 other Palestinians were injured. This latest violent rampage has raised the number of Palestinian death toll to at least 65 martyrs, including 13 children and four elderly persons since the beginning of 2023.

The settler terrorism is State sponsored; it is financially diplomatically, and politically facilitated and supported by every branch of Israel’s government and celebrated by Israeli officials.

Last year the UN recorded 660 Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians which clearly shows that Israel and its settlers’ function on the belief that they will never be held accountable for their crimes against the Palestinian people.

It is past time to put an end to this impunity with concrete measures for accountability to impose a tangible cost on Israel for its gross human rights abuses, its war crimes, its deliberate decisions to breach international law.

Faced with this systematic, intensifying Israeli aggression, we thus reiterate our calls for protection of the Palestinian people, in accordance with international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, and in implementation of relevant United Nations resolutions and decisions.

Ends