Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have expanded at a record pace and risk eliminating any practical possibility of a Palestinian state, the United Nations Office for Human Rights said on Friday. High Commissioner Volker Türk stated that the growth of Israeli settlements amounts to Israel’s transfer of its own population, which he reiterated constitutes a war crime.
In a report presented to the UN Human Rights Council by Türk, it is reported that between November 1, 2022 and October 31, 2023, 24,300 family homes were added to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the largest number since This tracking began in 2017.
The number continued to increase after the start on October 7 of last year of the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the also Palestinian Gaza Strip, and this week plans were made known for the construction of another 3,476 homes in the West Bank, said the rights chief. United Nations Human Rights.
After the terrorist attacks of the aforementioned October 7, there has also been an increase in violent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, with at least 603 confirmed in the last five months in which at least 405 people have died: 396 at the hands of forces Israeli security forces and nine by settler shootings.
The report denounces in this regard that the violence of Israeli forces and settlers is increasingly similar and it is often difficult to differentiate between one and the other, given that the settlers who carry out violent acts against Palestinians often wear military uniforms and weapons.
In these attacks, 1,222 Palestinians have also been forcibly expelled from their homes, including 592 whose homes were demolished on the grounds that they lacked construction permits, “almost impossible to obtain,” according to the report presented by Türk.
Illegal settlements and violence are accompanied by other strategies to intimidate the Palestinian population such as forced evictions, non-issuance of construction permits, home demolitions and movement restrictions.
“Settler violence and abuses have reached shocking new levels, which risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian state,” Türk stressed in a statement accompanying the report.
The Israeli Government’s policies appear according to the report to be aligned with the strategies of the settlers, in their objective of expanding control over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where in the 12 months studied by the document, 9,670 illegal Israeli homes were added.
This, Türk recalled, comes at a time when the International Court of Justice in The Hague has held hearings to determine whether Israel’s practices in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal or not. Hearings in which many States spoke out condemning Israeli practices, the UN human rights chief stressed.
