The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights recently published a report detailing the accelerated decline of human rights in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7. This report underscores the escalating violence, primarily initiated by Israeli military and settlers, endangering civilian populations. It calls upon Israel and other authorities to intervene and stop the violence.
In the report, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk attributes the repeated patterns of violations to the long-standing Israeli occupation of the West Bank, as he commented on the alarming intensity of violence and repression that have not been seen for years. The report also highlighted the Israeli military’s high-frequency killings that have resulted in a total of nearly 500 deaths in 2023, including 79 children and 3 men with disabilities.
Since October 7, the escalating violence from Israeli settlers has also been considerable, averaging 6 attacks per day. Over a third of the documented attacks involved firearms, leading to at least eight Palestinian deaths. Supported by the Israeli government, these settlers have merely resulted in two arrests, despite their increasingly aggressive actions.
Settler and Israeli security forces violence has also accelerated the displacement of Palestinian communities within the West Bank. Since early October, at least 143 families from more than 15 herding communities have been displaced, amounting to more than 1,000 people. There have also been cases of Palestinians being forced to flee due to threats from Israeli settlers. As Faris Samara, a Palestinian villager told ABC News, “They [Israeli settlers] said to us, ‘If you don’t leave, we will come in the night and shoot you all. We had no choice but to leave.”
The report also shed light on the mass and arbitrary arrests by Israeli security forces, with some detainees reportedly dying in custody. Apart from criticism towards Israel’s actions, the UN report also reproved the Palestinian State’s government for its use of violence and arbitrary detentions against its own protestors.
Following the Hamas attack killing mostly civilians on October 7, international law experts have deemed such attacks as war crimes. In response, Israeli authorities characterize their operations in the West Bank as a necessary step to prevent further terror attacks. Their defense strategy, which has resulted in over 20,000 deaths in Gaza – most of which were civilians, has been labeled as war crimes by various human rights groups.
Last but not least, the new report comes soon after Israel denied UN visa renewals, calling the organization’s response to the Hamas attacks a disgrace. The High Commissioner for Human Rights urged Israel to grant the UN entry to facilitate investigations into human rights violations, including those perpetrated by Hamas, a call paralleling the actions of the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s visit to Israel and Palestine.
For further information, please refer to the original report.