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Press Release
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Four Palestinians were shot dead and two
others were injured by an Israeli settler yesterday evening as they
were returning home from their work at a factory in the Israeli
settlement of Shilo, in the West Bank.
The settler, a driver from the Israeli settlement of Shvut Rahel,
was transporting Palestinians who work in a factory in the Shilo
settlement to nearby Palestinian villages. He shot dead three
Palestinian workers at the gate of the settlement and then went back
to the industrial area, where he shot at other Palestinian workers,
killing one of them and injuring two others.
There are conflicting reports as to whether he took the weapon he
used for the shooting attack from a security guard of the settlement
or used his own.
This is the second lethal shooting by an Israeli settler in as many
weeks. On 4 August, an Israeli settler from the West Bank settlement
of Tapuah shot dead four Palestinian citizens of Israel on a bus in
the town of Shfaram, in the North of Israel. The settler was an
activist of the outlawed Kach movement, which calls for the
expulsion of Palestinian from Israel and the Occupied Territories.
These deliberate killings by Israeli settlers follow an increase in
the past year and a half in attacks against Palestinians and their
property by Israeli settlers. In recent months Israeli intelligence
and security officials have warned about the risk of increased
violent attacks against Palestinians by Israeli settlers seeking to
disrupt the Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip.
However, Israeli settlers in the Occupied Territories continue to be
allowed to carry weapons and the Israeli authorities have taken no
concrete measures to prevent the daily harassment and attacks
against Palestinians and their property by Israeli settlers
throughout the West Bank.
The consistent failure of the Israeli authorities to prevent attacks
by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories
and to investigate such attacks and bring settlers to justice has
created an atmosphere of impunity, which has ultimately encouraged
further attacks.
Amnesty International reiterates its call on the Israeli authorities
to urgently take concrete and effective measures to prevent attacks
by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, to carry out prompt and
independent investigations into each and every attack, and to bring
to justice all those responsible.
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