The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the running over of four Palestinian children by an Israeli settler, stating that the incident clearly indicates that the Tel Aviv regime is fanning the flames of radicalism and violence in occupied territories.
The ministry, in a statement released on Friday, held Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the simmering tensions, arguing that Israeli courts are not serious about putting those liable for crimes against Palestinians on trial.
The statement further described the incumbent Israeli administration and religious schools run by radical rabbis as the root causes behind the spread of extremist and terrorist ideologies.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also called upon international organizations to intervene, and bring those accountable for the recent attack against Palestinian children to account.
On Thursday evening, an Israeli settler ran over four Palestinian children in the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan on the outskirts of the Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center later identified the victims as 6-year-old Hamza Tayser Abu Sbeih, 9-year-old Yousif Mazin Raman, 9-year-old Amir Tayser Abu Sbeih, and 11-year-old Anas Himoni.
Raman broke a tooth in the fall, Amir Abu Sbeih sustained a deep injury in his knee that required stitches, while the two others sustained bruises.
The center added that a group of Israeli forces simply stood by and did not take any measures, before locals called an ambulance that transferred the children to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem al-Quds.
There have been scores of “hit and run” incidents targeting Palestinians in different parts of the occupied West Bank, with most of them largely going uninvestigated by Israeli authorities. Some of such events have even resulted in fatalities.
On July 7, a 37-year-old Palestinian man, identified as Omar Ahmad Issa, was struck in the town of al-Khader, located 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) west of Bethlehem, while riding his motorcycle near a checkpoint leading to the occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds.
Issa was critically injured in the crash and later pronounced dead at the hospital.
On May 3, an Israeli settler deliberately ran over an eight-year-old Palestinian child, identified as Laith Yousif Shatat, as the child was standing outside his school in the eastern part of Yatta city, located approximately 8 kilometers south of Hebron (al-Khalil).
Murad Samir al-Razam, 4, was run over in the center of al-Khalil, situated 30 kilometers south of Jerusalem al-Quds, on April 30. The Israeli driver fled the scene after the incident.
The Palestinian child was taken to the Governmental Hospital in al-Khalil to receive medical treatment.
About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.