OCHA: Settlers displace 100 Palestinian families in the West Bank in two weeks

NEW YORK, Jan. 24 (YPA) – The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday that Israeli settler attacks in the occupied West Bank have displaced around 100 Palestinian families over the past two weeks.

OCHA reported that ongoing attacks, threats, and intimidation by settlers forced families from five communities to flee. Most of those displaced are from the Bedouin community of Ras Ein al-Auja, east of Jericho.

The office noted that settler violence has restricted access to homes, grazing land, and water sources, severely undermining residents’ sense of safety.

On 19 January, at least 77 Palestinian Bedouin and herding households, comprising 375 people (including 186 children and 91 women) began dismantling their structures and relocating from the Ras Ein al ‘Auja community, in Jericho governorate, following intensified attacks, threats and intimidation by Israeli settlers, particularly during night-time hours.

This displacement followed the forcible displacement of 21 families (110 people, including 61 children) on 8 January, after a series of settler attacks that included the physical assault and injury of an elderly man, cutting of solar electricity cables, and ploughing of privately owned land.

More than 72,000 farming and herding families, nearly two-thirds of all agricultural households, urgently need emergency assistance due to income losses, access restrictions, and rising costs, according to a Food and Agriculture Organization survey cited by OCHA.

@E.Y.M