France has lashed out at an attack by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, maintaining that ‘violence against Palestinian civilians is unacceptable’.
In a statement by the foreign ministry which was obtained by Africa Today News, New York, France said that it ‘strongly condemns’ the attack targeting a town where two Israeli brothers were killed, adding that there was a risk that the situation in the West Bank could ‘deteriorate out of control’.
France was calling on all parties “to avoid fuelling the violence, and to contribute to de-escalation”, the statement said.
“As part of its responsibility as an occupying power” the Israeli government needed to “protect Palestinian civilians” and find the perpetrators of the attacks in which cars and homes were set ablaze in the northern town of Huwara, the ministry said.
Read Also: Israel Launches Raid On West Bank, Kills 10 Palestinians
Africa Today News, New York recalls that Israeli forces in the West Bank killed 10 Palestinians on Thursday, officials in the occupied territory said, nine of them in a raid the Israeli military described as a ‘counterterrorism operation’.
The raid on the teeming refugee camp in the northern city of Jenin erupted into the worst day in the West Bank in years, with gunshots ringing through the streets and smoke billowing from burning street barricades.
Before the Israeli forces retreated in the middle of the morning, the Palestinian health ministry said that 20 people had been injured and the death toll from the fighting had risen to nine, including a woman.
The military asserted that Israeli forces came under fire during a ‘counterterrorism operation to apprehend an Islamic Jihad terror squad’ and shot several enemy combatants.
Africa Today News, New York since its records began in 2005, the United Nations has never recorded such a high death toll in a single operation in the West Bank.
A tenth Palestinian was subsequently shot dead by Israeli forces in Al-Ram, near Ramallah, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said he was shot in clashes which erupted during a protest against the killings in Jenin.