RABAT, April 13. /TASS/. The Palestinian Authority continues to push for the International Criminal Court to prosecute Jewish settlers who attack Palestinian communities, the authority’s Prime Minister and Palestinian Foreign Minister Mohammad Mustafa said.
"The State of Palestine continues its legal efforts with international partners to ensure that the International Criminal Court would prosecute the [Jewish] colonists and their leaders." he said as quoted by the Palestinian news agency WAFA as saying.
Mustafa's statement followed an armed attack by a group of Jewish settlers on the Palestinian village of Al-Mughayir, located in the West Bank. As a result, a Palestinian youth was killed and 18 other people were injured.
The Prime Minister instructed the authorities to provide all necessary assistance to the residents of the village of Al-Mughayir.
"The attacks of the colonists would not prevent the Palestinian people from standing for their land and thwarting the plans of displacement waged against them," he stressed.
Attacks by Jewish colonists, supported by the Israeli army, against Palestinian settlements and economic facilities in the West Bank have become a regular occurrence.
Tensions in the Middle East flared up again on October 7, 2023, after militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing residents of border communities and taking over 240 people hostage. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel announced a total blockade of Gaza and launched a ground operation in the enclave, also carrying out strikes on targets in the Strip and certain areas of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank
On December 1, the Israeli army accused Hamas of violating the truce that had been in force since November 24 and announced that it was again going to hostilities in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority blamed the renewed Israeli aggression on the United States. Since the beginning of the escalation of the conflict, the number of victims in the enclave has exceeded 33,000.