An Israeli human rights group and UN agencies reported on Wednesday an increase in settler attacks towards Palestinians in the West Bank, many times aiming at driving them away from desired land.

Israeli human rights group B'Tselem and the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHRC) reported that " vigilante" settler groups are steeping up violence against Palestinians, emboldened by the lack of punitive measures against the attacks.

"The Israeli government has not shown the political will to protect Palestinian civilians and has failed to commit sufficient resources to the job," a B'Tselem representative said during a press conference, Ynet News site reported.

Furthermore, both B'Tselem and UNHRC believe these actions aimed, in many cases, to drive Palestinians away from land that settlers want to take over.

"You have increased motivation by settlers to be attacking Palestinians," B'Tselem representative said.

Settler violence towards Palestinians in the West Bank, including property damage, hiked from 168 attacks in 2009 to 411 in 2011.

The so-called price tags, a recent phenomena in which right- wing extremists attack Palestinian, Israeli military or left-wing targets.

B'Tselem said that in the past decade over 350 complaints in behalf of Palestinians have been filed to the police, of which only 29 have resulted in indictments.