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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has not publicly called on Israel to curb a surge of settler violence targeting Palestinians in the West Bank, even as the attacks have drawn in US citizens and risk undermining the president’s regional agenda.
The Israeli-occupied West Bank in recent months has seen a spate of attacks on Palestinians, whose homes, mosques and farmland have been torched by Israeli settlers in what human rights groups say is an effort to drive Palestinians from their land. On Saturday, masked settlers in the town of Jalud used rocks and sticks to attack an NBC News crew and the Palestinian woman they were interviewing. On Wednesday, two Palestinian teens were fatally shot during a raid by settlers and Israeli forces in the village of al-Mughayyir, according to Palestinian media.
Nowhere has the violence been more pronounced than in the village of Qusra, where settlers besieged several Palestinian homes last month, cutting off electricity, water and road access for scores of residents. Settlers continue to surround the home of Palestinian-American Loui Ridi, who raised a US flag over his home in an unsuccessful attempt to deter the settlers.
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