The White House described as “unacceptable” attacks by Jewish settlers against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, following violent incidents in which a 23-year-old man was killed and a second Palestinian was injured, according to the Palestinian Authority.

“Violent settler attacks against Palestinian citizens in the West Bank are unacceptable and must stop,” the spokesman for the US presidency’s National Security Council said in a statement.

He called on the Israeli authorities to take the necessary measures to “protect all communities”.

This “includes” interventions “to end such violent incidents” and “to hold the perpetrators of such violent incidents accountable,” he added.

According to the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry, the attack, in the community of Jit, between the cities of Nablus and Qalqilya, claimed the life of a man, Mahmoud Kader Sanda, 23, who fell “from settlers’ bullets”. Another Palestinian was hit by a bullet in the chest area and is hospitalized in serious condition, according to the same source.

Asked about this by AFP, a spokesman for the Israeli army confirmed that at around 20:00 (local and Greek time) “dozens of Israeli citizens, some masked, entered (…) Jit, set fire to vehicles and infrastructure and threw stones and molotov cocktail”.

The president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, “strongly condemned” this attack, calling it a “pogrom”.

After the war broke out in the Gaza Strip, triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas’ military arm in the southern part of the Israeli territory on October 7, violence escalated further in the West Bank.

At least 633 Palestinians have been killed in that area by fire from either the Israeli armed forces or armed settlers, according to an AFP tally based on official Palestinian data; while at least 18 Israelis, including soldiers, border guards and civilians, have also been killed, in Palestinian attacks or military operations in the Palestinian Authority, according to official Israeli data.