The report calls for an immediate end to the use of military weapons and equipment in law enforcement operations, an end to arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of Palestinians, and an end to discriminatory restrictions on movement.
“The use of military tactics and weapons in the context of law enforcement, the use of unnecessary or disproportionate force, and the application of broad, arbitrary and discriminatory movement restrictions once morest Palestinians are deeply troubling,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
“The intensity of violence and repression is such that we have not seen it for many years,” said V. Turkas.
The report discusses the human rights situation in the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem since October 7.
Violence in the occupied West Bank has intensified since a war broke out between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip following the October 7 attack.
On October 7, Hamas militants broke through the border into southern Israel and carried out an attack that killed regarding 1,140 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on the latest official Israeli figures.
At least 21,110 people, most of them women and children, were killed in the Israeli retaliatory attack in the Gaza Strip, the territory’s Health Ministry said.
According to the Ramallah-based ministry, more than 300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip.
Deaths recorded
The report, which provides a detailed overview of the situation between October 7 and November 20, says there has been a sharp increase in airstrikes and incursions into refugee camps and other densely populated areas, resulting in deaths and injuries and extensive damage to civilian infrastructure.
In the weeks following the October 7 attack, the report noted a “sharp increase in settler attacks,” including “shootings, burning of homes and vehicles, and uprooting of trees.”
V. Turk asked Israel to end “settler violence once morest the Palestinian population, to investigate all cases of violence between settlers and Israeli security forces, to ensure effective protection of Palestinian communities once morest any forced displacement, and to ensure that pastoral communities displaced by constant armed settler attacks can return to their lands”.
The UN Human Rights Office said it confirmed that 300 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem between October 7 and December 27. Among the dead were 79 children.
Of the 300 killed, “At least 291 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces, eight were killed by settlers, and one Palestinian was killed by either Israeli security forces or settlers.”
The rights office said 200 Palestinians had already been killed in the territory in 2023 by October 7, which the UN said was the highest number in any 10-month period since the UN began keeping records in 2005.
Turk called on the Israelis to give his office access to Israel, adding that he was ready to prepare a similar report on the October 7 attacks.
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2024-07-19 20:59:53
