UN calls on Israel to end violence in West Bank

Amman: A United Nations report released Thursday detailed the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, after 7 October 2023, calling on Israel to end unlawful killings and settler violence against the Palestinian population.

According to the organization’s official website, the report called for an immediate end to the use of military weapons and means during law enforcement operations, an end to arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of Palestinians, and the lifting of discriminatory movement restrictions.

“The use of military tactics, means and weapons in law enforcement contexts, the use of unnecessary or disproportionate force, and the enforcement of broad, arbitrary and discriminatory movement restrictions that affect Palestinians are extremely troubling. The intensity of the violence and repression is something that has not been seen in years,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Trk, reflecting on the findings of the report.

The r
eport, which covered the period from 7 October to 20 November, described a sharp increase in airstrikes as well as in incursions by armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers sent to refugee camps and other densely populated areas in the West Bank, resulting in deaths, injuries and extensive damage to civilian objects and infrastructure.

Trk said: “I call on Israel to take immediate, clear and effective steps to put an end to settler violence against the Palestinian population, to investigate all incidents of violence by settlers and Israeli Security Forces, to ensure effective protection of Palestinian communities against any form of forcible transfer, and to ensure the ability of herding communities displaced due to repeated attacks by armed settlers to return to their lands.”

The UN Human Rights Office has verified the deaths of 300 Palestinians from 7 October to 27 December 2023 – including 79 children – in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Israeli forces killed at least 291 Palestinians
, settlers killed eight, and one Palestinian was killed either by Israeli forces or settlers.

Prior to 7 October, 200 Palestinians had already been killed in the area in 2023 – the highest number in a ten-month-period since the UN began keeping records in 2005.
Source: Jordan News Agency