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RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — The European Union will soon launch a programme to support Palestinians facing Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority and the EU office in Jerusalem said Monday.
"In coordination with the government, the European Union will launch a programme to support victims of settler terrorism," Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said in a statement.
"It's a project that the EU is developing with local and international NGOs with the aim of documenting attacks on Palestinians by violent Israeli settlers and to support the communities that are victims of such attacks," the office of the EU representative in the Palestinian Territories told AFP.
A source at the office added that the project, led by civil society organisations and supported by the EU, "will provide protective presence and protective equipment such as fences to Palestinian communities facing attacks from settlers".
The programme is expected to be finalised within a few months, and its budget should be "around six million euros", the source added.
Settler violence has long been an issue, and has only increased as settlements expand in the West Bank.
Rural communities are most vulnerable due to their isolation, with beatings, damaged crops, cattle theft and arson reported almost daily.
There has been a spike in deadly attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank since the start of the Iran war on February 28, Palestinian officials and the United Nations have said.
Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank in settlements that are illegal under international law, among some three million Palestinians.
Israeli has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
