Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh demanded on Monday that Israeli “settler gangs” be designated as terrorist following a series of attacks on Palestinian properties and holy places in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting in Ramallah, he said the international community must criminalize the settler attacks, hold Israel to account and designate the gangs as terrorist.
The acts on the ground are “state-sponsored terrorism that Israel alone is responsible for,” he stressed, while criticizing international silence over the violations.
“The world must not remain silent over the crimes that the Israeli soldiers commit as part of a systematic policy based on killing for the sake of killing,” the PM added, noting that the crimes are increasing as Tel Aviv prepares to hold elections in November.
Shtayyeh noted an uptick in Israeli attacks in the past month, stressing that the Palestinian people are facing an all-out war and bloody aggression during which Israeli soldiers and settlers took turns in committing their crimes.
On Monday settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem and staged provocative marches.
The Jordan-run Islamic Waqf Department, which oversees the holy sites in Jerusalem, said dozens of settlers entered the site in groups under Israeli police protection.
They also performed rituals as Israelis marked the first day of the Sukkot holiday.
Later, around 1,200 settlers marched from Bab al-Silsilah to Bab al-Qattaneen inside the Al-Aqsa compound.
Nidal Al Jabari, the director of Waqf Department in Hebron, told the Palestinian news agency, WAFA, that Israeli settlers burned copies of the Quran, Islam’s holy book, near the Qaytoun mosque in Hebron's Old City.
