Israel's former prime minister has accused the Israeli government of actively enabling "murderous" settler violence in the occupied West Bank, days after Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to downplay the surge in attacks amid growing US scrutiny.
In an article published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Friday, Ehud Olmert said that violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians wasn't just the work of fringe extremists but a coordinated campaign enabled by politicians, police and military authorities.
"There's no other way of defining what's happening in the territories except as a violent, murderous war," Olmert said, adding that attacks against Palestinians were "designed to lead gradually to ethnic cleansing and mass expulsion".
Settler attacks have risen sharply since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza, with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recording more than 260 settler attacks in October - the highest monthly total since monitoring began in 2006.
UN figures also indicate that more than 3,200 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced as a result of settler violence since then.
