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Police fail to guarantee safety of Palestinians: Israeli rights group

A Palestinian woman stands outside her house in Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday. — Reuters
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — An Israeli rights group says authorities only bring indictments in about one in 10 ideologically-motivated attacks by Israelis against Palestinians in the occupied territories. In an annual report published Sunday, Yesh Din says it has monitored 225 investigation files since 2014. Of the 185 files processed, it says just 21 have resulted in indictments — an 11.4 percent rate. Though the figures mark an increase over previous years, the group says its findings still show that Israel “fails to fulfill its duty to guarantee the safety of the Palestinian public in the occupied territories.” As a result, it says Palestinians have been increasingly refraining from turning to police. Yesh Din is often critical of Israeli authorities and government policies in the West Bank. Israeli police had no immediate comment. Netanyahu calls for closure of UN Palestinian refugee agency Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called for the closure of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, days after US President Donald Trump threatened to cut Palestinian aid. “UNRWA is an organization that perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem,” Netanyahu said at the beginning of his weekly cabinet meeting. On Wednesday, Trump threatened to cut aid worth more than $300 million annually to the Palestinians in a bid to force them to negotiate. UNRWA runs hundreds of schools for Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank, Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. It also distributes aid and provides teacher training centers, health clinics and social services. — Agencies