The United Nations has said Israel must end settler attacks on Palestinians

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The UN human rights office has called on Israeli security forces to immediately end their active participation in and support for attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Tuesday's announcement follows a wave of settler attacks on Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank sparked by the killing of a 14-year-old Israeli boy in what authorities believe was a militant attack.

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The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli forces or settlers had killed seven Palestinians and wounded 75 others since the attacks began on Friday. Israeli authorities have urged people to stay away from vigilante attacks amid heightened tensions. But rights groups have long accused Israeli forces of ignoring or even complicity in settler attacks.

Tensions in the region have risen since the latest war between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7, when two Iranian-backed militant groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, carried out a deadly cross-border attack in Israel that killed 1,200 people. kidnapped another 250 people. Israel responded with an offensive that wreaked havoc on Gaza, killing more than 33,800 people, according to local health officials.

World leaders urged Israel not to retaliate after Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles in an unprecedented revenge mission over the weekend, bringing the Middle East closer to a regional war. The attack comes less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria killed two Iranian generals at the Iranian consulate.

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Tehran, Iran An Iranian official said his country would respond within “seconds” if Israel wanted to retaliate over the weekend attack.

Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani said late Monday that Israel would face a “definite and severe response” if it took further action against Iran.

Iran fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel over the weekend in response to an April 1 attack on the Israeli embassy in Syria that killed two Iranian generals.

With the help of the United States, Great Britain, Jordan, and other countries, Israel was able to intercept almost all of the shells and prevent much loss and damage. It is Iran's first direct military strike against Israel after decades of enmity since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

But Bagheri Kani said, “There will no longer be a gap of 12 or 13 days between the Zionist regime's move and Iran's strong reaction. The Zionists must no longer count in hours, but in seconds.'

Israel's military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Monday that his country would respond to an Iranian attack without saying when or how. The US and Israel's other allies have called for further escalation.

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In Rafah, Gaza Strip The Gaza Ministry of Health announced that the bodies of 46 people killed by Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours were taken to local hospitals. This brought the total number of Palestinians killed in the war between Israel and Hamas to at least 33,843, the ministry said on Tuesday.

The health ministry did not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its report, but said most of the dead were women and children.

Israel blames Hamas for the civilian deaths because the militants fight in dense, urban areas. The military has not proven that it has killed more than 13,000 militants.

Israel withdrew reinforcements from Gaza earlier this month after ending its offensive on the southern city of Khan Yunis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to invade the southern city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's population has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere.

The war erupted on October 7 when Hamas launched a large-scale attack on southern Israel. Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages that day. Israel's offensive has driven 80 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million people from their homes and brought the besieged territory to the brink of famine.

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