TEL AVIV – Major Israeli operations across the occupied West Bank are seriously worsening an already “calamitous” situation there that has been deepened by serious settler violence, the United Nations (UN) rights chief said yesterday.

Opening a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk, decried soaring violence in the West Bank amid major Israeli raids.

“In the West Bank, deadly and destructive operations, some at a scale not witnessed in the last two decades, are worsening a calamitous situation there, already aggravated by serious settler violence,” Turk told the council.

Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza which began after militant group Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023.

Israel’s military on 28 August launched simultaneous raids across several cities and refugee camps in the northern West Bank, killing at least 36 Palestinians, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry.

The military said it killed 35 militants. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed at least 14 of the fatalities as members.

Since 7 October, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 662 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

At least 23 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, Israeli officials say.

On Sunday, three Israeli guards at a border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan were shot dead by a Jordanian truck driver, who was then “eliminated”, according to Israel’s military.

Turk also highlighted that nearly 10 000 Palestinians are being held in Israeli prisons or military facilities, “many arbitrarily”, and said over 50 have died “due to inhumane conditions and ill-treatment”.

The Hamas attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1 205 people, mostly civilians including some hostages killed in captivity, official Israeli figures show.

Militants seized 251 hostages during the attack, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has so far killed at least 40 972 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The UN human rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

Turk stressed that “ending that war and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority”. 

– Nampa/AFP