The United Nations human rights high commissioner has said the situation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank was deteriorating sharply and he called on Israel to reset its policies and comply with international law.Violence has surged in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has for over a year been conducting regular sweeps leading to repeated clashes with Palestinian fighters.
Israeli settlers have also been involved in clashes.
“This week’s violence in the occupied West Bank risks spiralling out of control, fuelled by strident political rhetoric, and an escalation in the use of advanced military weaponry by Israel,” Volker Turk said via a spokesperson at a UN briefing in Geneva.
He referred to air strikes with helicopter gunships on the Jenin refugee camp on Monday, calling them a “major intensification of the use of weaponry more generally associated with the conduct of armed hostilities, rather than a law enforcement situation”.
The helicopters were called in as troops were engaged in a long gunbattle that killed seven Palestinians, including two minors.
“Israel must urgently reset its policies and actions in the West Bank in line with international human rights standards, including protecting and respecting the right to life,” Mr Turk said.
Israel occupied the West Bank, which Palestinians envisage as the core of an independent state, in the 1967 Middle East war.
US-sponsored statehood talks have been frozen since 2014, while Israel has maintained military rule over millions of Palestinians and continued to expand Jewish settlements.
Israel’s mission in Geneva said Israel was “well aware of its responsibility under international law and acts in accordance with its international obligations at all times”.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the US had encouraged more steps to restore calm in the region during a call with his Israeli counterpart, Tzachi Hanegbi.
Mr Sullivan “extended sincere condolences to the Israeli people for the June 20 terrorist attack by Hamas” during a conversation with Mr Hanegbi and “also expressed deep concern over the recent extremist settler attacks against Palestinian civilians,” the White House said.
‘Deeper into abyss’
The day after the Jenin raid, Palestinian gunmen shot dead four Israelis near a Jewish settlement in retaliation.
Mr Turk called it “appalling” that such killings were celebrated by some Palestinians.
So far this year, the UN rights office has recorded killings of 126 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem.
That follows a toll of 155 Palestinians last year, which was a 17-year high. The UN rights office has raised the latest surge in violence with both governments, the spokesperson added.
Since January, 24 Israelis and one foreigner have been killed in attacks by Palestinians, Israeli authorities say.
“These latest killings and the violence along with the inflammatory rhetoric serve only to drive Israelis and Palestinians deeper into an abyss,” Mr Turk said.
Reuters