WASHINGTON
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on Friday that the United States is concerned about increasing attacks by Israeli occupiers against Palestinians in the West Bank, and that the Israeli government “will do something about it.”
“We're concerned about that, and we've expressed that concern. And I think there's concern in the Israeli government about it as well,” Rubio said when asked about the violence by Israeli occupiers against Palestinians.
He noted that some of the perpetrators have also targeted Israeli security forces, saying: “I think you'll see the government there do something about it.”
“The president has expressed very clearly that he's against any sort of change in the status quo in the West Bank. Obviously, there's a lot going on in the world right now, but that is a topic we are following very closely,” he added.
Earlier this week, a State Department official told Anadolu that the US government is in “regular dialogue” with the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority about “improving stability in the West Bank.”
Occupier attacks in the West Bank have escalated in recent weeks, with eight Palestinians reportedly killed by occupier gunfire since late February, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.
About 750,000 Israeli occupiers live in hundreds of settlements across the West Bank, including around 250,000 in East Jerusalem. Occupiers carry out frequent attacks on Palestinians that rights groups say aim to forcibly displace them.
Violent attacks have intensified across the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, encompassing killings, demolitions, displacement, and settlement expansion.
The Israeli attacks claimed at least 1,136 Palestinian lives, wounded at least 11,700 others, and led to the arrest of roughly 22,000 people, according to official Palestinian figures, amid international warnings that Israel may move to annex the territory.