UN: Israel must halt attacks

Israeli security forces “must immediately end their active participation in and support for settler attacks on Palestinians”, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights said yesterday.

The statement follows a wave of settler attacks on Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank triggered by the killing of a 14-year-old Israeli boy in what authorities say was a militant attack.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says seven Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers since the attacks began on Friday, and another 75 have been wounded.

Israeli authorities have urged people not to resort to vigilante attacks as tensions soar. But rights groups have long accused

Israeli forces of routinely ignoring settler attacks or even taking part in them.

Tensions in the region have ramped up since the start of the latest Israelhamas war on October 7, when Hamas carried out a devastating cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel and saw 250 others kidnapped.

Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that has caused widespread devastation and killed more than 33,800 people, according to local health officials.

World leaders have urged Israel not to retaliate after Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles over the weekend in an unprecedented revenge mission that pushed the Middle East closer to a region-wide war.

The attack happened less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consular building.

An Iranian official said his country will respond within “seconds” if Israel seeks to retaliate for its attack over the weekend.

Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani said late on Monday that Israel will face a “resolute and hard response” if it takes further action against Iran.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said she will fly to Israel to help de-escalate the tense situation after Iran’s weekend attack and express Germany’s support for Israel.

She called on all sides to prevent the conflict from spreading to other countries in the region and for new sanctions against Iran.

RESIDENTS WARNED: A man reads one of the leaflets dropped by the Israeli army with text in Arabic designating the northern Wadi Gaza area as a ‘dangerous combat zone’ and urging people to stay away from the area, in Deir el-balah in the central Gaza Strip.