A Palestinian girl walks in front of a section of the Israeli barrier in al-Ram in the West Bank on the outskirts of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
Far-right\u00a0Israeli<\/a> Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich<\/a>\u00a0 has called for the creation of \u201csterile security zones\u201d around settlements in the occupied West Bank to \u201cprevent Arabs from entering them\u201d.<\/p>\n In a letter <\/a>to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Smotrich, the de-facto \u201cgovernor\u201d of the West Bank, demanded that Palestinians should be barred from the zones encircling the settlements in the territory.<\/p>\n The move would presumably include lands Palestinians own, even to harvest olives, Israeli media reported on Monday.<\/p>\n In the letter, Smotrich denounced “the continued neglect of the security of the settlers in Judea and Samaria”, using an Israeli name to refer to the occupied\u00a0West Bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe concept of security is shaken,\u201d he said, referring to the 7 October assault<\/a>\u00a0by armed Palestinian fighters from Gaza into southern Israel, which resulted in the killing of around 1,400 Israelis.<\/p>\n Close to 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing retaliatory Israeli onslaught on the besieged Strip.<\/p>\n “The writing is on the wall and I am not ready to be a part of it. I will not agree to additional blood under my watch due to insistence on maintaining distorted perceptions,\u201d Smotrich said in the letter.<\/p>\n Since the Hamas-led attack on 7 October, Smotrich and national security minister\u00a0Itamar Ben Gvir <\/a>have inflamed tensions in the West Bank,<\/a> with Ben Gvir distributing arms to settlers in border towns and Smotrich halting the transfer of funds<\/a> to the Palestinian Authority (PA) over its alleged support for Hamas.<\/p>\n This has stoked what the UN says is an “alarming”<\/a>\u00a0escalation of settler violence against Palestinians, with at least 144 Palestinians killed in the territory by Israeli fire.<\/p>\n A UN official on Friday <\/a>said that Israeli soldiers and settlers have committed human rights violations and war crimes against Palestinians.<\/p>\n